Life Right Now
by not done baking
Summary: Renesemee is a little bitter when her family decides that they need to settle down so Nessie can experience school. How does Nessie react when Jake defines their boundaries and when she realizes her school comes with boyfriend material? minor strong lang
1. Prologue

I haven't had exactly what you would call a normal childhood

**Life Right Now**

_Prologue: _this is where I try to get you up to speed on how my life became the way it is.

I haven't had exactly what you would call a normal childhood. For one, it's lasted approximately five years. And yeah, I know that you hear people on the news saying that today's society causes kids to grow up so fast and _yada, yada, yada_. But, early mental maturity isn't even close to what I'm talking about. No Bratz doll caused me to be this way.

Nothing about society caused me to be this way, it was my mom and dad—and their physiology at the time of my… conception. 'Cause, apparently what all the vampire lore is leaving out is that if a _human_ woman and a vampire man do it they end up with someone like me. A hybrid. All cause of the guy's super sperm. If that wasn't a PA for Safe Sex I didn't know what was. Because from what I found out, when I got The Talk from Mom when my lovely hormones started acting up, was that my parents thought they were safe. Two weeks later, surprise (!) Mom's walking around with a baby bump and Dad's freaking out thinking that some demon spawn is inside of her. Kids, use protection cause even vampire-human sex isn't safe these days.

Of course, the fun didn't stop after I was born. I grew too fast and matured at a freakishly crazy rate. Had I been born in a conventional hospital… or a hospital at all, my birth certificate would show that I'm five years old, but physically I look about 16. At least, that's what I was passing for right now.

Sixteen years old, Momma says I'll be a junior in high school when we move back to the states.

Oh yeah, and I had super powers.s


	2. Chapter One

I haven't had exactly what you would call a normal childhood

**Life Right Now**

_Chapter 1: _an in-depth look at the past five years.

After my first birthday (imagine a girl looking seven years old smiling in front of cake with one candle on it) my family decided to travel. To the human mind—the _completely_ human mind—it would appear that my parents just wanted me to experience different cultures. That was only half true though, traveling around was the easiest way for me to have some sort of life outside of our home. Humans got suspicious when someone was different like me.

In the past five years we had visited almost all of Europe, visiting all the touristy places but also visiting lesser-known places. Like the home where my Papa had grown up, well at least the site where Papa had grown up… it was gas station now. We had spent our first year of traveling with Zafrina, Senna and Kachiri, though. The jungle had seem so immense at first, but after a year there it suddenly didn't seem so big.

After the Amazon we went through England, Ireland and Scotland. All beautiful, cold, wet and rainy. On the moors of one of the countries we had played the most immense games of tag and hide and go seek, but with my family's special powers it made for a very interesting game. We tried to play in teams most of the time, splitting those with special skills up evenly, but after awhile it just turned into a game of every man for himself.

On my fifth birthday Mom and Dad surprised me with the biggest shocker of my life. And it wasn't a car (Dad and Rose had bought me one of those as soon as I could reach the pedals _and_ could at least pass for sixteen with a hop, skip, jump and forged ID card.) Everyone had decided (without me, apparently, we're real big on group decisions around here) that it was time to really settle down somewhere and time for me to start going to school. I had argued that by all American standards I had already graduated two years ago, but I was the only one to see it that way. Even Jake was against me on the matter.

Which is completely unfair if you ask me, I don't much about the whole imprinting thing but I do remember getting my way a lot when it came to Jacob when I was younger. And I'm not stupid, I learned how to milk that vulnerability in him as often as I could. But, now when I needed him the most he just up and leaves me.

My entire life had spent around this small group of people, my every waking moment was around people who had known me since I was born. I was always around people who knew what I was and knew that I was different. Beyond sales people and street vendors I had had very little interaction between people outside of my extended family. My parents were worried that I was going to miss out on something. There was also something about learning to socialize like a normal teen.

I tried to explain that I socialized perfectly fine without having going to school but _no_ Jake did not count as a friend outside of family. I needed to learn how to act around my family when we went back to school as best friends and siblings rather than aunts, uncles, parents and me: the niece, daughter and imprintee.

I lost that battle, all nine of them pulled rank on me and before I knew it we were on our plane and heading back to middle of nowhere USA.

I was finally, after five years, acting my age. I knew how silly I looked, slouching on the couch, arms crossed and pouting. I had earphones in and turned up loud in order to silence any of the disgusting whispers going on between the couples around me. Jake was the only solace I had in my miserable single position, but it didn't even seem to phase him. Not that it mattered since the moment we got on the plane he went to the back and crashed in the bed. Maybe I was a little biased by my dwindling need for sleep but I was amazed at how Jake could just sleep for hours on end. Jake was the only one who seemed to understand how disgusting it was to have my parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents whispering and conniving together like they were still their physical ages. I don't care what they look like, they're still old. Mom kept promising me that I would understand one day, when I stopped aging and growing. She tried to explain the biology of it to me but I had stopped her. I didn't care what they did behind closed doors, I had no interest in that, I just didn't want them to do it in front of me.

I had grown up around these people and seen the intricate workings of their relationships. Rosalie and Emmett were the fun couple, they were least likely to be sitting around having some deep conversation about life or some other philosophical wonder. They found other, small, mostly physical ways to show their bond. And yet, they very seldom bothered me with it. It was the sensual ways that the other relationships worked that bothered me. Papa and Mama acted closer to their older age… or they were at least mature enough to keep their relationship elsewhere. They had enough sense to protect the virgin eyes and ears Emmett so frequently teased me about. The relationship between Alice and Jasper was much like the relationship between Mom and Dad, deep and passionate. Seeing one without the other was like seeing someone missing half of themselves. Sometimes I wanted to go and examine their heads to see if the couples were connected together by some vein or portion of their brain since they tended to finish each other's sentences or answer each others unspoken questions.

Again, Jake was the only person that I had to commiserate with. And even then he didn't seem to mind what was going on, which I never understand. Even if I was his ultimate best friend or whatever he called me it was still weird feeling like the ninth wheel all the time.

With all of this (and some more that didn't even phase me most of the time) how was I supposed to get through two years of high school as a half-human from a vampire family? I had heard that high school was stressful but I believed that this was putting that notion to a new level. And one of those new buildings, the ones that were so high up that you could count the spots on the moon when you only half way up. The only things I knew about high school I had obtained from books, movies and television shows. But, if it was anything like _Gossip Girl_, _Spring Awakening_ or _Laguna Beach_ I was in trouble. I suddenly realized that my dad had been right for once, filling my head with trash MTV shows _was _bad for me.

These human nerves were a bitch.

**AN: **I'm really sorry for the long wait, even though I am posting while I write I hope not to have that big of a space in between postings again. That being said, I don't have chapter 3 written yet…. but I do have two long chapters written that will go towards the middle of the story. I'll have a bit of free time on Thursday so hopefully I'll be able to get a chapter up then. It's not my lack of creativity right now, it's my lack of free time.


	3. Chapter Two

Life Right Now

**Life Right Now**

_Chapter 2: _home is _not_ where the heart is.

In five short years I had lived in various places. Our house in Forks, penthouses in hotels in New York, London and Paris. Chic apartments in Barcelona, Dublin and Glasgow and grand hotels everywhere else. Nowhere had I seen a house that was this dilapidated. Actually, I'm taking that back. I think there were some slums in South America that had shanties like this house. Maybe it was the Mother House. Esme had promised that she would have it fixed up as fast as vampirically possible but this house had to be beyond her miracle work.

It was a huge colonial building that had probably been white back in it's heyday, the front was made up of a huge porch that took up the entire front of the porch. Huge columns supported the roof that covered the second story balcony, a tarp hung where French doors once had up there. Most of the window frames themselves were still intact, the wood was just missing the glass, a few had loose hinges and were screeching spookily in the slow wind. A perfect place for immortal creatures.

The yard was overgrown with weeds, or rather, the yard _had_ been overgrown with weeds because they were all long dead now. The clumps of brown mulch looked stiff from the frost that had settled in. It didn't seem to effect my vampire family who were all standing as they normally did, but Jake and I were standing closer to each other with out hands crossed in front of our chests, huddling for some sort of heat. There were a few barren trees with just a handful of leave clinging desperately to the branches not wanting to let go. Were they scared of the fall too?

"Mama, you have got to be kidding me!" I turned towards Mama who was already walking towards the house for further inspections, "Look, it's not like I'm underestimating your awesomeness at retrofitting buildings… but I'm seriously underestimating your ability to retrofit _this_ building. I mean, this _thing_-" home really wasn't the word for it-"is beyond repair. There's no way you expect any of us to live in it right now." I drew in a deep breath. "There aren't even any animals in it! No one can live in that thing."

My mom turned to me, "Renesmee Carlie Cullen! Watch your tongue!"

I gave Mom a dry look, "Oh, like you aren't thinking the same thing. Look at the place, your vision is better than mine. That place is a disaster. There's no way we can live in it. There aren't even any windows. I bet it's missing the floor."

Mama turned back to the group of us. Alice was looking warily at Jasper until she smiled, my dad's smile followed next and he came to stand next me and Mom and Jacob. "Stop making rash judgments, Nessie," was all he said. If you thought your dad had a tendency to act like he knew everything you don't know anything, my dad actually does know everything. At least everything going through someone's mind if they aren't trying to hide their thoughts from him—or they aren't my mother.

Mama turned around back to us, looking a bit bashful, she tucked her caramel hair behind one ear and spoke, "I didn't exactly see the house before buying it. The realtor said it was a fixer-upper but he didn't explain it as clearly as I should have made him. I should have asked for pictures. I just got a little excited when Mr. Harbon told me about the place. We can stay in a hotel for a few nights, school doesn't start till next week anyway, Ness."

"So you got played," I stated bluntly to my grandmother. I wanted to stomp my feet and cry, I wanted to run away. I didn't want to be here, but if I was going to have to be here then I at least wanted my own bedroom. I wanted to slam my door, you can't slam doors in hotels, they stop in that stupid slow motion swing they're set-up for.

"Well," Mama faltered, "in a sense. We didn't pay what the place is worth though, your uncle bargained very well." I looked towards Jasper, odds were he didn't bargain he threatened. Consumer civility wasn't his strong suit.

Papa broke the silence that had settled around us, "So, I know there aren't any decent hotels around here. Shall we meet down in Augusta and see what we can find?"

"Can we stay somewhere where there's shopping," Rosalie asked. She was tired of being here, I was more than certain that she felt the same way about this place that I did. I think Rosalie liked being on the move more than she let on. I knew that sometimes her and Emmett would break off from our family, but that was all before I was born. It was like I was some stupid sticky fly trap for this family, no matter what happened they would stay as close to me as possible. Which made this whole "normal teenage experience" completely impossible.

"Rose, let's just go into the city. We can go over to the Upper East Side, it'll be worth the drive."

I saw the possible shopping trip arising, "Can I drive?"

Alice looked ready to say yes but then stopped and looked at my father, he turned to me, "I'm not sure if you'll be going," was all he said.

"That's not fair."

Dad looked ready to speak again, I crossed my arms in front of myself and glanced at the rest of my family, at the spectators. I clenched my teeth and looked back at my dad. I was thankful that I had caught on early to blocking him from my mind. He didn't need to know how much I already hated this place.

"Edward, can we do this later?" my mom asked him quietly. She placed her hand on his arm and pulled him back, _oh yes, _please_, let's draw this out just a little bit more. Come on Dad, I can take it. Just yell at me, tell me how ungrateful I am. Tell me how rude I'm being. Cause I'm just going to tell you how much you're ruining my life. Taking me away from everything thing I've known and throwing me into this crazy universe known as high school, why don't you just feed me to the sharks?_

I groaned as Dad backed off, either him taking a breather before punishing me was going to be a good thing because he would calm down or it would be disastrous because he would have time to really think out what he was going to say and what he was going to take away. It was disgusting how creative he could get, since everyone I knew was always just a hallway away from me taking away my laptop or cell phone never really worked. Taking away my books was inhumane and not allowing me to hunt and forcing me to eat human food was too dangerous to anyone I came in contact with.

I knew what my punishment would be this time though. Alice and Rosie would get to go shopping without me, maybe I could shop text. They knew what I liked, they could send me pictures and I could reply back…. Alice giggled and everyone turned to look at her. She just grinned at me and then walked towards her car with Jasper.

"Jacob, would you mind riding with someone else?" Mom asked him. He nodded solemnly. Great, this was some kind of barbaric kidnapping psychological thing. Cut off the kid from everything familiar and ground her. Fabulous.

"Carlisle, do you mind?" Jake asked.

"Of course not, son." Jake followed Mama and Papa towards their car. Rose and Emmett went to theirs which left Mom, Dad and me in the sparse field in front of our future house.

"So, are we going to do this here or wait till we get to whatever hotel we're staying at?" I asked boldly. It was better to jump right into the fire than to wait for it to get to you, at least you never had to deal with that pesky problem of inhaling the smoke.

**AN: **I don't want to end this here, but I think that the next chapter will better and of more substance if I do. Before you all go off on me about Nessie being immature let me say this, if you have ever been in this kind of situation and you are very passive aggressive this is pretty much the general idea of what you will do.


	4. Chapter Three

You guys are wonderful for waiting this long. I love you all. I'll do my best to get another chapter up to you as soon as possible. I do have classes that I have to pay attention to; it's not like high school. I miss high school. I got some great writing done during my classes.

* * *

**Life Right Now**

Chapter 3: _it all goes to pieces._

It wasn't as bad as I was making it out to be. I mean, it wasn't like they were going to flog me or something. I was the ultimate miracle child to them. I was closest damn thing to Immaculate Conception these people were ever going to get; they had to love me! Dad was gripping the bridge of his nose in irritation, Mom's hand was still on his arm and I could only assume she was doing her best to talk him out of whatever harsh grounding he wanted to give me. Mom's face differed immensely from Dad's, Mom's face was the perfect visual definition of disappointment. It worked too because I began to feel guilty for my behavior.

"Can I just explain myself before you feed me to the fishes?"

Mom just looked at me in pity, "We wouldn't feed you to the fishes."

"It wouldn't work," Dad mumbled, he should have known better though my hearing was almost as good as theirs.

"Oh my God, Dad! You just don't understand! You got to have a life when you were my age. Sure, you got sick, watched your parents die and then wasted away in the hospital until you died and that must have sucked a whole lot but at least you had some sort of constant before all of the venom started circulating."

He cut me off, "We've been dragging you around the world for the past five years, how is that constant?"

"The changes were constant. I liked my life. I liked traveling and learning and seeing new places. I knew what to expect from the unexpected, but high school… I have no idea what to expect and neither do any of you! You haven't been there in almost six years."

"We've looked into the school, Renesmee. It has great scores for the area and it's a normal high school," Mom explained in her painfully soothing voice, "I was terrified on my first day of school and I was human and I didn't have a theoretical high school diploma going in. Nessie, this isn't about whether or not you can pass the classes, I know that you can pass them even if you slept through them—which doesn't mean you should—this is about you learning how to socialize. We can't all go back to school and act like, well, like a family. I mean," she was grasping at straws, "we can't act like your parents and you can't act like our daughter.

"What's the point of any of this? What's the point of living if we're going to be doing this till the Earth implodes?"

"Humans ask the same thing and they know how long they are going to live, give or take some time. Anyone with a conscious mind will ask that question, sweetie," Mom came up and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. My attempt to pull away was futile, she was a full vampire and technically still a newborn, she was going to be stronger than me for some time. But it didn't matter cause I didn't mind the comfort, I looked up at Dad and sent out that small message to him blocking the rest. He came up and grabbed me and my mother in a hug.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted. I'm just scared and I don't like it here. I'll try to keep myself in check, no promises though." Despite the cold I let my parents cold arms hold me till we started edging in an odd mass towards the car.

"Do your best, you know you can talk to us—or anyone—if you really feel like it. It can't be healthy to bottle up everything inside. Things tend to explode and that's messy." Mom smoothed my wild curls down and opened the door for me. I smiled at them both and scooted into the chilly car. It took a moment for my parents to get in, it didn't take the rear view mirror for me to know that they were whispering to each other and kissing at the trunk of the car.

I rolled my eyes and slumped onto the long seat, I grabbed my pillow and blanket from where they rested on the ground and put them in their spot. The blanket was cold but with some wriggling it seemed to warm up. The last thing I was aware of was the heater kicking in and the sharp turn to get onto the freeway.

&

I woke up slowly, I was in that weird space of being awake but asleep and deathly comfortable. I didn't want to leave it if I didn't have to, but the silent car and bright lights told me I didn't have a choice. The valet was waiting to park the car and Jake was about to open the door to get me out.

I snuggled deeper into the blankets I had, hey, who was I to complain if someone was going to carry me up to my room? The door opened and a quick and cold breeze entered the car. _Oh hell no._ I squirmed down to the other side of the car and remained in my soft nest of blankets. "Come on, Nessie," he was irritated but I knew he wasn't serious. There was little I could do to upset Jake. He grasped me from under my armpits and pulled me out of the car, I tried to resist but in my semi-vampiric state it was all so pointless. When I wrapped my arms around his neck and burrowed back into my blankets I sent him a message loud and clear.

_TIRED!_ _BED!_

He chuckled, "Sure, sure, Nessie. Go back to sleep." He pulled the blanket over my head before entering the bright lobby, I didn't feel the need to rebel against this suggestion. I feel back asleep fast…

…of course, it was that nasty kind of falling asleep because when Jake cursed the key card to multiple rings of hell I woke up. Mom came over, I could smell her flowery scent that seemed to waver around her like an aura. "Jake, it's not that difficult."

"You're not carrying a hundred pound sack of potatoes, Bells." I growled, who was he to call me a sack of potatoes. Smiling a smile that would have put fear in Atilla's heart I drooled all over his shoulder. A slur of words and odd sounds came out of his mouth when the door opened and I was dropped on the floor.

"Hey!"

"Don't drool on me." He wasn't looking at me on the floor, but at the vandalized portion of his shirt… it was pretty gross. He wiped at it like that would actually help.

"Don't call me a sack of potatoes." My retaliation was easy to avoid if the name-calling came to a cease.

"Well, you weren't exactly helping me!" He pulled me up from my rag doll position on the floor and walked me into the room, turning on lights and checking out the living quarters. It wasn't the nicest place we had stayed at, but we were only going to be here for a week or so, what did it matter? Jake opened the bathroom, turned the light on and checked behind the door.

"Is it clear?" I tried to ask in a serious voice, but sleep was seriously blocking any clear speech from forming.

"Yes," he said shortly. I rolled my eyes, as if someone was hiding in the room just waiting to kill me. Good freaking luck.

"Great, check under the bed. Bag man might be stronger than us." I kicked my shoes off, pulled the scrunchie out of my hair and discarded my rings on the nightstand. I fell into the bed and nestled into the cold, heavy blankets. I sighed. It was the perfect combination.

Jake's head popped up from, "All clear."

"Well, just keep paying the Bag Man off and everything should be okay," I joked about the terrible story he had frightened me with a few years ago about the man who came around collecting disobedient children in order to sell them. Didn't stop me from misbehaving, but it made me think… about how I was going to pay him off. I smiled.

"What's that smile for? You're hardly a kid anymore," he said with an odd softness, "he might not get much for you. Don't want to upset him."

"No, that story I wrote… _If You Give a Kid a Credit Card_…"

"She'll pay the monsters to stay away…" Jake finished. The finished and bound version of that book was somewhere in my boxes which were somewhere in the FedEx delivery system. I rolled around and snuggled deeper still into the blankets… was I really complaining about all the changes earlier? Who cared if our plans got a little tumultuous, these beds rocked.

"Go to sleep, Nessie."

"G'night, Jake."

I heard the door open and then Mom's, Dad's and Jake's voices mixing in the hallway. Mom and Dad both came in and kissed me goodnight, I was too tired to do anymore then grunt and accept the kiss. They'd forgive me in the afternoon when I woke up.

**AN:** things I have learned in this chapter- Bella and Edward are hard to write as parents and flock does not mean flog. Stupid Americans and our lack to enunciate anything. Also, when you have an idea, write it down. I lost an entire convo with Jake and Nessie because it stayed in my head… that wouldn't have been a problem had I been able to get up the next morning and write it like I had planned to… because my computer died that morning. :c

**Also: **The _Bag Man_ is a legend from Brazil and is basically a hobo is goes around with a bag a la Santa Claus and collects disobedient children. If someone had told me that could happened to me I would have been the poster child for perfection. That's some scary stuff.


	5. Chapter Four

**Life Right Now**

Chapter 4: _my heart and life go boom, boom boom_

I _humphed _as I thought over the punishment I had been dealt. It was tricky move made by Dad. Two weeks in this hotel room while my aunts shopped and drug Mom through out the city, two weeks alone while my uncles and Dad and Papa worked on the house according the Mama's plans. Jake was assigned to me however, making sure I had no fun in this room. Not a hard thing to do when my Pay-Per-View privileges had been swiftly taken away overnight. I was limited to the 56 channels the hotel provided free of charge, it was sick really, we had swiped the best rooms in the building but access to anything fun was so easily taken away.

Jake knocked on the door that connected our rooms together, "You okay, Nessie? You look like the bubak came during the night," he joked, but he was right. I felt soulless.

"I _feel_ like that, Jake. How am I supposed to last two weeks doing this," I held out my arms gesturing to myself lying on the already made bed. I didn't need maid service to do these things for me… while that hadn't been taken away from me, making my bed had taken time that would have otherwise been spent counting the tiles on the ceiling. (47.)

"Plenty of people survive without Pay-Per-View and shopping. I'm sure your mother would trade places with your right now just to get out of shopping with Alice and Rosalie," he said this as if I should be grateful for not having to follow Alice and Rosalie through New York City while we tried on fashionable clothes that felt marvelous against the skin. Oh yeah, Mom's really taking one for the team right now.

"Jake," I drew out the vowels in complaint. He leaned against the door jamb and scrunched his face up as if making a decision. I sat up, I had seen this face many atime before. I smiled and leaned forward waiting for him to talk.

"Well, I'm going to go back to my room and watch a movie. I'll leave this door open if you need anything…" he shifted back onto his side of the doorway.

"What movie are you going to watch?"

He smiled, "I'm not sure, but I'm up for suggestions… not that you can watch it or anything. Just, holler through this door if you have any ideas," he left my sight and I heard the springs in his couch squeal under his weight.

I gave him five minutes before I bounded through the doorway and jumped onto the couch next to him, "What about that new one, with Elle Fanning? It's supposed to be cute. It's about her first year of high school or something like that. They compared it to _Mean Girls_… please?" I pouted and let my eyes round out. He rubbed my head, which mussed with my hair, not that it mattered; Jake was the only one here, still I tucked the curls back behind my ears and continued looking at him with what he had deemed "big Loch Ness Monster eyes."

"You know Carlisle is keeping watch on the bill, I'm not exactly one to watch _Mean Girls 2_-"

"It's not a sequel!"

"Doesn't matter. Edward will have my head if he finds out you aren't secluded in your room reading through your school books-"

"Already read them."

"Doesn't matter. He'll kill me and then who will help you break the rules?"

"Maybe your stifling me! Maybe I'll have to figure out how to break them myself!" He didn't rise to my outburst, just raised his eyebrow and suggested the new Armageddon movie. "Fine."

He went through the menus and clicked on the new movie, entered the password and tossed the remote onto the cushion next to him. I leaned into him but he was stiff as a board and while warm, hardly comfortable. "If I wanted to snuggle with a wall heater I'd go and find one," I complained.

The movie was running through the credits but instead of complying and holding me like he used to he turned, "Don't you think you're too old for this?"

I looked at the screen which was being covered in vivid explosions. "What do you mean by that? Movie ratings don't work-"

"No, Nessie, to be… to be snuggling with me," he seemed tired as he spoke and I was concerned. But he had a point, a point I didn't like, but still a point. Most girls my age, well, most girls sixteen weren't snuggling up with their boy friends, they were snuggling up with their boyfriends. Spaces make a big difference. Boyfriends weren't really something I was thinking of, honestly. I didn't want to go through what Mom and Dad did because that whole thing just seemed so tedious but stressful. Not a great combo in my book. But, it wasn't like there were tons of 16-year-old male vampires lining up for me to pick from. My dating pool was limited to no one.

But that issue aside, I had never thought anything about Jake and I being close to each other… but maybe he did. Maybe he was ready to start dating again. Maybe he wanted to settle down with someone, it'd mean losing my best friend. Losing the person who imprinted on me. It'd mean we'd part ways, he'd stop changing and start getting old… and die. He'd die with someone else and be happy and I'd be boy friendless and boyfriendless. I'd live out eternity like an old spinster. I would be a spinster stuck at 18 years old for the rest of the world.

I frowned but didn't say anything. "I'm sorry, Ness. It's just weird now." I frowned even more, I wasn't touching him anymore, how was he still reading my mind.

"Whatever." I scooted all the way down the couch, putting an entire square cushion between us. I stared at the screen, but I didn't take much of the movie in. Just that it seemed fairly similar to my life, everything I had ever known was exploding in my face and making the world a completely foreign place.

**AN: **it seems like monsters will be a running joke between Nessie and Jake... if things stop being so awkward. So, just to save you the research I'll explain each monster down at the bottom, like so...

_bag man; _monster that kidnapped disobedient children and put them in his bag, a la Santa Claus. (In some cultures he is Santa Claus' doppelganger.) (If you don't know what a doppelganger is, shame on you, minus ten points and go re-watch season 3 of _Buffy_.) (Or go get your dictionary...)

_bubak; _a monster that steals disobedient people's souls.


	6. Chapter Five

**AN: **Sorry, my writing's been a bit constipated lately. Lucky for you guys I have two chapters of this already written so maybe this chapter and then another and then nice quick updates (chapters 7, 8 and 9)… then some slow ones again (10-12ish??).

**Life Right Now**

Chapter 5:_**blue**__ jeans are only for the blues_

We spent two weeks at the hotel before Esme had deemed the house livable my vampire standards. Which meant we had no air or heat, which was fine and dandy for those who were dead. I, however, was very living. But I painted on my smile with E.L.F Ruby Slipper gloss and slipped on my jeans. It was a twisted sort of peace that I found now that we had checked out of the hotel; I was no longer grounded, but I was doomed to spend six hours of my precious time at school. It was disgustingly unfair and totally the type of trick my dad would pull on me.

After the movie ended on the my first day of being grounded I left Jake's room, being ignored was easier when there was no one in the room. But, it was better to say that we had never not communicated for so long. It was unnatural not being able to talk with Jake anymore. I missed his voice and company terribly.

I sounded wimpy. I didn't really need Jake anyway and besides, how many girls have guys as best friends? _That_ was what was weird. But, who could blame me? I had been isolated with only my family to talk with. Maybe this high school thing would be good for me, it'd give me a chance to get some friends and if I was only going to be around them for a several months what did I have to care? I could tell them anything I wanted without being guilt ridden for years about—except the obvious of course. Everyone had explained to death what would happen if I ever divulged our secret. It had been irritating, as if my physical image really matched my mental state. I could grasp the idea of a secret. Just like how I never snitched on Emmett for being the one to catch the windowsill on fire at that one hotel three years ago.

I looked at my face in the mirror. Pretty, made up face, with my hair half pulled back. Your basic print-tee completed my ensemble of blue jeans and vintage Converse. The cool thing about having fashionista aunts was that they kept everything and they had plenty of stuff so that my vintage stuff was never in shambles as I had seen some people's. I pulled my bookshelf and bed away from the door (I loved my Auntie Alice but I wanted to get ready for the first day of school in peace, not chaos.) I could hear footsteps running down the hall, as if I was that stupid.

Walking into the hallway I could see little Alice standing near the stairway as if she was innocently loitering there. I sighed, "Come on, I'm not letting you dress me today."

"Well, what if I made some suggestions?" she was bouncing on the balls of her feet as if she was having pure caffeine pumped through her veins via permanent IV.

"Nope. I like my outfit."

"You have candy wrappers around your arm."

_Oh, was _that_ that sticky feeling? _"It's a bracelet, Auntie."

"Oh," she appeared to be choking on the fashion crime I was making.

"It matches my shirt." Well, they both had red in them.

"You crazy kids," she joked. I squinted at her, she do desperately wanted to take over my outfit.

"Can I get by?" my voice was dead of any emotions. Dad told me not to get angry about the move, he never told me to be indifferent. Not that I actually was, but this whole emotionless thing was lot easier in the long run. Besides, it's not like anyone was going to sympathize with me.

Everyone, except Mama and Alice, was sitting in the living room looking at the news flash by on the screen installed in the wall. I wasn't stupid enough to not realize that all attention was on me. Perhaps if I didn't say anything it would be fine. I just wanted to go to school and come back home with half my brain in tact. I didn't want to make a big deal of this.

A flash went off behind me. _Don't cuss, don't cuss, don't cuss._

"Alice!"

"Bad fashion choices or not, this day should be captured."

Mom looked me over, "What's wrong with her outfit?" Rosalie and Alice scoffed and Dad kissed Mom's forehead.

I rolled my eyes and stared at my mom, leave it to her to induce some long speech from the trend twins that would make me late for school. "Look," I turned to my aunts, "I'm gonna dress however I want to dress because I have to go sit in a tiny wooden contraption for the next six hours. You're lucky I bothered to get dressed at all this morning!"

Jacob walked in from the kitchen holding five poptarts in his hand and eating one, I had assumed he would be out as he tended to be since our disagreement at the hotel. "Pajamas are against the school rules."

"Who said I slept in pajamas?"

Jacob stared at me, eyes and mouth as wide as golf balls. Papa snorted and I heard Mama drop a dish in the kitchen. Mom giggled but covered her mouth when Dad growled. Emmett opened his mouth to speak, "Don't," my dad snarled out. Jasper sat innocently on the couch experiencing the wide array of emotions, oh to be him at this moment. Rosalie took a cue from Mom and did her best to not laugh, but Alice frowned at bit at her lip.

We had to be a psychologist's dream observation family. You know, if they ever start doing vampire social interactions.

"We should get you to school," Mama walked in through the door, taking her apron off and picking up her car keys.

"Mom and Dad aren't taking me?" I looked at the two of them, Mom was rubbing Dad's back as he was still hunched over with his fingers on the bridge of his nose. Way to take a joke, dude.

"Last study I read, three-year-olds were not reproducing back in the 90s," Papa said.

"It's not like I was going to ask everyone to come and meet my parents!"

"I'd be ashamed of them too," Emmett piped in. A book off the in-table flew and would have hit him square in the face had he not been supped up on super powers. Mom smacked Dad's arm, reprimanding him but not really meaning it.

"We weren't aware you wanted to share this with them. We didn't think you were going to be too particular, seeing as how you didn't want to go to school at all," Mama said kindly, but it wasn't that nice sort of kindly it was that kindly that said all to clearly 'ooooh, we've caught you enjoying the moment.'

"Oh, I still don't want to go to school but I heard them last night, I wasn't eves dropping," I clarified, "it was just quiet. They were excited, something about first times."

Rosalie let out the laugh that she had been holding from earlier, "Oh, honey, if you think that was about _school_ you have a lot to learn. Hopefully you're in a health class!"

Again, a psychologist's dream.

Mom and Dad groaned, Mama and Papa did the same but seemed more amused by her comment. Everyone else laughed with Rosalie except for Jake whose head slammed through the hollow wall that separated the kitchen and living room.

"You know," I was irritated now, twice my family had exploded in an array of expressions leaving me standing in the middle of it all and becoming very late for my first day of hell school, "I would enjoy not being tardy for school. I don't want to be slapped with a ruler or anything."

"They don't have corporal punishment anymore," Dad said. Sometimes, I felt like I needed footnotes to explain when I was being sarcastic.

"But it was great when they did," Emmett piped in, "anyone remember how many rulers I broke?"

"Too many," Jasper stated, speaking for the first time. I supposed being an innocent bystander was a pretty crazy thing for him what with his power and such.

"We should get you too school," Jake pushed off the wall and looked at the damage he had inflicted. "I'll fix it when I get back, Esme. Sorry." Jake walked forward and grabbed my arm, pulling me and my backpack towards the door.

"I thought Mama was going to take me," I pulled my arm out of his grasp. "I wouldn't want to get too close to you in the car," I hissed at him. He reeled back; I could almost hear him regretting what had happened. _Good._ I wanted him to be upset with himself for being a stupid nimrod.

"Esme, we _should_ get going. Even though I _don't_ want to go," I reiterated, "I don't want to be late."

"Of course, sweetie," she dropped her keys from one hand to the other. On her way out the door I could see her pat Jake on the shoulder in a motherly fashion. I threw a tantrum on the inside. Was no one on my side when it came to the war with Jacob?

_Oh, what with that nice long talk you had with your family when you all sat down and discussed your feelings? _Mature Nessie had tendency to come out in times when I only wanted to right.

Immature Nessie, the Nessie I was right now according the voice in my head, stuck out her tongue at Mature Nessie.

**AN:** no monsters this time but I felt myself get back into the swing of things near the end. Writing Nessie is hard because there are seven people who have played a major role in her life and it's hard to show them all in this. _I feel like I'm giving too much description at times, if I am just raise your hand and tell me to lighten up._ c: I'm gonna make a great teacher. c:


	7. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer: **Forgot about this… I don't own Twilight and I'm not Stephenie Meyer. Most days I'm fine with that, days where I spend three hours stressing over my Econ class…. being a mother of three and being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to write out my fantasies doesn't seem too bad. I'm still not her though.

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Six: _no one told me this school came with a sex god._

Mama walked me into the office and signed some papers while I watched my new peers walk by. From the window I could see the quad that was lined with classrooms and a cement sidewalk, grass that would be wet and mushy filled the center which was only broken up by the roots of an old tree that had lost its leaves early this year.

"Sweetie," the secretary called, "here's your schedule and a map. This school is big and you missed freshman orientation. It's fine though," she quickly corrected as if I should feel some guilt for this, "just remember that the 900 wing is on the other side of campus. You'll be fine!"

"Thanks," I looked at her name card and smiled sweetly, "Mrs. Tellez."

Mama and I walked out of the office and stood under the awning that covered the walkway between the cafeteria and office. She looked at me for awhile before I slumped and held my arms out for the hug I knew she wanted. She smiled and wrapped me up into a monster hug. Ah, yeah, the Esme Monster, Jake and I both agreed that that could be the scariest monster sometimes since you never knew when she was going to come out… like when _someone_ decided to throw a Frisbee around the house.

"You'll do beautifully," she smoothed my curls and smiled down at me. It made me want to gag on the rabbit blood from this morning. I loved my grandmother, my mama, but I couldn't stand this sentimental granddaughter's first day of school stuff. Wasn't the going to school part bad enough?

"Thanks Mama," I smiled as the dutiful granddaughter should, gave her one last hug and peck on the cheek before I made my way down the walkway to a short covered hall. With one last wave to Mama I entered the hallway and began searching for my locker. 476. Technically I didn't need a locker. I could carry my books and probably five more sets with complete ease, but why do something when I didn't have to?

"Do you need someone?" I turned towards the rude voice. A girl with rotten blonde hair wearing a flannel button up over a white tank. Hadn't anyone ever told her that the grunge look was so over? I promised myself I would send thank you txts to Alice and Rose for being so completely and utterly awesome when it came to knowing what was what in the fashion world. Of course, I had to get to my locker _and_ classroom first. I walked through the covered hallway to discover my locker wasn't there.

I continued walking, doing my best to ignore the looks from the students. I resisted the urge to look down, Mama would have told me if there was something on my shirt. The stares continued, suavely as I could I brushed away whatever it was that people were staring at. I did not need to be known as the new girl who walked around with schmutz on her shirt on the first day. _Forget this!_ I pulled my ear buds out and stuck them in, even if the stares were screaming "New girl!" I could easily ignore them with whatever was uploaded on my iPod.

On the side of the first building read the number 200, I walked down it, it had buildings 204-207 and all the lockers were in the 200 realm. Ah, there was logic to this madness. Trying not to busy myself with the question of where classrooms 200-203 (let alone 1-199) were I walked down a sidewalk tell I found building 400 and eventually my locker. A tiny, perhaps vertically 2 feet and no more than 10 inches across, metal box with a dial lock on it. Various cuss words had been scratched into the metal and been covered in paint two shades lighter than the original coat. _Wonderful_.

I walked forward to open the locker and my shoes stuck to the pavement, pulling harder I was afraid to look down. Sucking up my courage I smiled wryly at the gum not embedded to not only the sole of my shoe but the cloth on the inside of the shoe. _Wonderful._

Opening my locker I found it relatively empty, I couldn't complain about the dust or old candy wrappers. At least there was nothing dead in it. It just smelled dead. I shoved my books into the metal box and went in search of my next class, doing my hardest to ignore the stares of everyone. _Yeah! Hi! I'm new here! Stop staring!_ It's like they were never taught manners or something. A bell rang and the staring students made their way to the classrooms they needed to be in, classrooms that they already knew the whereabouts of. Unlike me, new student extraordinaire. I need to be in T3… since when were letters involved in room numbers. _Wonderful._

I walked around until the campus appeared desolate, a lone muffin wrapper blew across the wet quad and I had yet to find room T3 or even building T. A person in slacks walked by, "Shouldn't you be in class, miss. What's your name?" He withdrew a pad of red paper from his pocket and a pen.

"Renesmee Cullen." I waited for the question that would be coming.

The eye twitch came, the look of confusion, the dropped mouth, the jutted forward head. I had seen this hundreds of times all thanks to my mom's need to—what? Memorialize her two mothers in me? "How do you spell that?"

I spelled out my name for him and he handed me the paper and I read it, "Detention?"

"You're out of class without a pass—" why didn't Jasper forge me some of those, _those_ would be useful, more so than the medical documents he had forged "—you should know better." Oh yeah, from the past ten years that I spent in school systems, of course I would know better!

"It's the first day of school!"

He took my schedule, "You're a junior, you should know the campus. Room 123 after school. T3 is on the 500 side, next to the road, the portables."

Whining at my upcoming punishment—was the wait part of the punishment?—I made my way to the row of slouching buildings I had walked past earlier. I had assumed that they were storage rooms. I walked up the ramp, my weight causing the metal to groan. Great! What a way to make an entrance. I opened the door (which creaked) and walked in. "Are you Renememesesms Cullen?"

I held back a smile, I could create terabytes of files on the numerous mispronunciations of my name. I correct the woman (a Ms. Swanson according to my schedule) and sought out the only empty desk in the room. Last desk, last row. I tripped over a backpack and tennis shoe on my way to the seat à la mère. _Way to follow in her orthopedic shoes, Nessie._

"So, Swan-dog," a student two rows over called out, "what move are we watching first?"

Swan-dog?

"We'll be _reading_ The Great Gatsby, Roger." She went back the white board where she had been writing down vocabulary. 'Assail.' Were these kids serious?

"Oh come on Swizzle," the Roger guy complained again.

"Enough Roger!" He remained silent. After textbooks and ancient copies of The Great Gatsby were passed out by the teacher (who could possibly develop Disassociative Identity Disorder from all the nicknames the students were calling her, I had yet to her anyone use her real name) class couldn't end fast enough.

I snuck a glance at my map before making my way to AP American History. The desks were lined up against three of the walls, a clothes line hung across the room with small pieces of paper clipped to it. Dates were written on the sheets and I didn't need Jasper to tell me that they were major dates in American history.

The few times Jasper had told me bed times stories they had been tales of his time at war. Once Mom walked in on Uncle Jasper describing the bloody scene he had witnessed he was no longer allowed to tell me any unapproved stories. He had argued that he was trying to start my education as early as possible, but lost to Mom's hideous evil glare. Of course, my curiosity made Alice Liddel appear indifferent and unenthusiastic and Jasper soon began sneaking me Civil War literature.

"Hey guys, I'm Mrs. Hurtado," a short woman stepped on a square foot wooden box, "We're just gonna go around the room and you can each talk a little bit about yourselves."

Each student spoke in turn. _Yeah, hi, I'm Nessie. I speak seven languages. I've lived on every continent. I'm six years old and I'm part vampire._ Can anyone say psychotic? "Yeah, hi, I'm Nessie. I spent the last six—teen years traveling with my family. I've been home schooled." Next. Next. Next.

"Really?" Mrs. Hurtado asked, intrigued. Damn.

No, I'm lying.

"Yeah."

"Where have you been?"

How long is this class?

"Oh pretty much everywhere." I remained disinterested and she took the hint.

"So, my name is Mrs. Hurtado," she addressed the class, "I'm four foot eleven before you ask. I've taught history here for seven years and ten years ago I killed a man," the whispers around the room stopped.

_Oh puh-lease. Just on? My family could so top that, you should meet my uncle!_

"I was driving and I was trying to change the radio station. My car was pretty old so the buttons weren't on the steering wheel and this was before any cars had voice command on them. The car hit something. I stopped. Called 911. Long story short, I was taken in, questioned and a few months later a jury decided that I wasn't guilty since I wouldn't have been able to see the man if I had been looking at the road. It's a curse being short really. So, who wants to learn about the Mayflower?"

The class stared at her. Holy crap, this class was gonna be a trip.

Break came afterwards and I spent the time looking for my class. Room 201 ended up being on the other side of the covered hallway I had been kicked out of this morning. I sat down before the bell rang and took out my notebooks and phone.

I stopped when I flipped it open to the txt center. Who was I going to txt? If I sent a message to my family they would dutifully tell me to pay attention in fear that Dad read their mind and kill them for distracting me and since I didn't want my family members to meet an untimely end I was left with the only other number in my address book. Jacob.

_Jacob…_

We weren't exactly on speaking terms yet and it appeared that it would continue to be that way. I didn't want to be the first to withdraw the silent dispute between the two of us, besides seeing his shocked face when I made those comments this morning had been beautiful. And what had I even meant by those comments?

In the midst of my thoughts my peers (the school was small enough for me to begin to recognize some of the faces) filed in the room. A girl who had been in my first two classes sat down next to me, "Hi, I'm Kayla." She waved and smiled, when she did that's what she became, all smile.

"Nessie," I smiled back. It wouldn't make sense for me to make friends, but it wouldn't be good for me to be rude. Acquaintances never hurt anyone.

"So you do have a nickname!" She seemed happy about this fact, my name had the tendency to do that to people. I was frequently called, "Hey," or "Miss" in order to get my attention somewhere. The brave few who said my full name generally got it wrong.

"Yeah…" what did I do now? Where was that Friends 101 class when you needed it?

Before things became more awkward the teacher at the head of the class spoke, "I'm Mr. Lovern," he wrote it on the board, "Uh, yeah, just in case you forget. Sometimes I write it on my hand just to remind myself who I am… of course I'm just an illusion," he surveyed the confused faces, "we'll get to that later."

The teacher handed out syllabi, the AP Psychology course seemed heavy in theories of consciousness but that wouldn't be too much of a problem for me. Dad and Papa frequently debated about states of consciousness.

The class ended and I left Kayla behind, she had suggested trading numbers so we could study together. It brought my contacts list up to 10. I followed a few students through the 500 wing, across the quad and into what Mrs. Tellez had referred to as the 900 wing. It consisted of a few dozen portables and a flaky building that reeked of old. Rom 913 was stuffy and warm despite the cool temperature outside. A thermometer above the teacher's desk read 82 degrees.

This was going to be a long class. However, the bell soon rang and the teacher handed out homework. I followed a clump of students to the 1950's diner themed cafeteria, the horrid scent of food entered my nostrils and I resisted the urge to gag. I backed out of the clump and made my way to my locker. A hot thermos and an apple waited for me there. A fairly normal looking lunch, sure the thermos had blood in it but the students didn't need to know that.

I went back in and Kayla waved at me, "Nes! Over here!" I dutifully walked over to her table and sat down among her friends. She touched my arm as she introduced me and I flinched, she frowned at me and pulled back. How did my family do this? The group of girls spent the 31 minutes of lunch quizzing me on European guys, I made up the information that I lacked and it seemed to appease them. It was unfortunate that pain killers had no effect on me since the squeals they emitted was enough to give a pig a headache.

When the bell rang I looked down at my schedule. AP German. Did Daddy find this amusing? I saw a guy carrying a binder with the word GERMAN written across the cover and followed him to M48, a portable in the middle of the quad. Did this school know no logic?

German went by slowly even though the teacher failed to introduce himself. "This is terrible," cried one of the students. I sniggered; I had known German for four years already and spoke it fluently.

"No," corrected the teacher, "famine is terrible, this is just confusing."

When the class was excused I checked my schedule again. Auto Tech in 803? Had Jacob prepared my schedule, not Dad? Or perhaps Rose had convinced Dad to give me some sort of elective class. I followed the illogic the school seemed to be run by and found 803 in time to slide into the last empty seat at the ring of the tardy bell.

The teacher appeared irritated, "Try to be here before the warning bell, Miss-"

"Cullen," I looked down, what a way to start a class. Especially one I would actually have to work at.

"Miss Cullen. I start teaching at the warning bell, there's no reason to be tardy."

"Ah, give the new girl a break," a boy next to me defended. I hadn't had time to survey the students in this class, I had been too preoccupied with not dying of embarrassment. The teacher resumed his lecture but the boy bent down and whispered above my head that was buried in my backpack, "'Specially such a pretty one."

I looked up and our faces were no more than two inches a part, better yet his _gorgeous-sex-god_ face was only a breath away from my face. I smiled. Maybe I would need some peer tutoring in this class.

**PSUEDO-BETAING PLEA:** You want chapters up faster, I want to get them up fast. I'm a busy girl. If you see any inconstancies in this story (names changes, etc) or typos to the point where they no longer make sense please tell me and I'll do my best to fix them.

**AN:** Thanks for all the reviews, I have another chapter to write since this one got way to long and I didn't get everything I wanted into this one.

**A NOTE:** All the teachers in this story exist, my 10th grade history teacher really did stand on a box because she was so petite and she really did introduce herself in that fashion. She also gave us extra credit for watching _Survivor_. Ms. Swanson is based on my newspaper/theatre teacher and there were students in the school who didn't know her real name, at one point we had over 20 different nicknames for her. Mr. Lovern is actually my States of Consciousness teacher for this semester but he was too awesome not to write down on paper, again he really did introduce himself in this fashion. The famine quote is stolen from my French II teacher.

The school layout is based on my old high school's layout and is basically serving as a memorial, summer before my senior year the knocked down the front half of the school and then the summer after my senior year they rebuilt it. All it's 1950's charm is gone and is replaced by generic school structures. :c


	8. Chapter Seven

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Seven: _I'm taking six classes and none of them covered flirting (with disaster.)_

I desperately tried to pay attention to what was going on at the front of the room, but even my semi-vampiric mind didn't seem to be up for the challenge. I haphazardly passed back the papers I received, but paid little attention to what was on them. And when the bell rang I would have known that there was homework had my desk neighbor not been distracting me. I mean, had there ever been anyone look so beautiful while lounging in a desk made for someone half the size as him?

As the last of the students filed out of class he turned to me, "Now, I know you're the new girl, but I don't know your name. I'm sure you have a beautiful name to go along with you."

I shifted on my feet, my left supporting all my weight, "Renesemee."

"_That's_ perfect."

"Thank you," I managed to say; the smile made it hard to talk. I knew my name was unique. I could remember everyone commenting on it when I was first born, some of them had even said it was perfect as well. But it was so different when this boy said it, it made something in my tummy want to sparkle.

"I'm Zac, by the way," I wondered if he had control of the sparkle in his blue eyes.

"Hi Zac," my hand waved at him. I planned to saw it off the moment I was home.

He laughed, it was one of those silent laughs. He waved back, "Hi Renesemee."

He walked me to the door, "Do you think I could walk you to your car?"

"I'm being picked up." _No, Nessie, no! You're supposed to say yes._

"Well can I walk you to the parking lot?" he seemed so eager and it made full of energy, I twisted from one side to the other.

"Well I need to go to my locker," I said slowly. _Yes, Nessie, yes! Now he'll know where to find you outside of 6__th__ period!_

He looked down the hallway that we had entered. "I think I can be okay with that."

I tried to hide my smile in my binder that I had yet to put in my backpack. We walk silently down the walkway between the buildings and fence that separate the classrooms from the quad, his hand is awkward at his side but there's no way in hell I'm going to be brave enough to do anything about. My eyes are shifting everywhere, finally taking notice that the school hasn't actually emptied out yet. Sophomores are heading to their designated back parking lot and students in athletic getups are walking around, a few clusters of students talking to each other or on their phones are still scattered in the halls. Is this town so boring that the prime hangout place is the high school?

Zac, however, walks with his eyes forward and a grin on his face, every once in awhile looking down at me (I did my best to keep that maniacal grin controlled by an evil spring off of my face) or nodding at someone who said hi in the halls. Three of the administrators knew him by name, as did the principal. We arrived at my locker and I began to situate my binder and books between my hip and the locker next to mine, "Let me," Zac grabbed for my books and I let him.

I rearranged everything in my locker and put everything I needed in my backpack and everything I didn't in my locker. I slid my backpack back on and slammed the metal door shut. "Did you need to go to your locker?" He only had a ducktaped binder with him, he had to have needed at least something from his locker.

"Uhm," his hand hand raked through his gorgeous brown hair, "yeah, sure."

I followed him over towards senior hall where he opened his locker and placed the dilapidated binder in it. "No homework?"

A grin and an eye sparkle. "Joys of being a senior."

"Lucky you," I had tons of homework. Weren't we supposed to be eased back into the whole homework thing… well… it actually wouldn't be too difficult for me. I mean, before going to school-school I did all of my work at home. Schoolwork and homework.

"Well, maybe I could come over and tutor you sometime."

_Ha!_ I smiled even though I knew Zac would never survive the outcome of coming over to my house. Emmett, Jasper, Jacob and Daddy would all have him in a million little pieces before the spine on my Trig book even cracked. "Did you take Trig with King?"

That caught him, "Ah, no. Didn't quite get up that high," he pushed his locker shut, leaned against it and looked down at me, "so, I'm talking with a smart girl, huh?"

"Uhm, I don't know. I just study hard. It's easy for me."

"Well I hope I'm able to keep up with you then."

"I'm sure you will be." _WTF, Nessie!? You're supposed to say, "_I hope you will be too._" You're supposed to flirt with him, _that's_ how you get him to kiss you. Not by stroking his ego! You're half-vampire, catch on!_

I shifted towards the front of the school, I didn't want to leave but I also didn't want to be grounded again. I was pretty certain saying I was grounded lost me any points I could get with guys.

"My ride's probably waiting for me," I said regretfully.

He sighed and my heart jumped up and danced. He was sad about me leaving too! "You know I can give you a ride home if they aren't here."

"I'll keep that in mind."

We walked out of the covered hallway and made our (slow) way to the parking lot. And there it was, a sight I did not want to see right now. Especially not with Zac standing next to me because I'm super sure Zac enjoyed being alive and not devoured.

Jake's green car that Daddy bought him ("If you are going to be driving my daughter around then it is going to be in a safe vehicle, not some refurbished old metal heap.") was sitting at the curb with Jacob waiting in it. I didn't need to be his imprint to see the murder in his eyes because Zac saw it too, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Nessie."

"Yeah, bye Zac," two words I didn't want to be next to each other.

He did that grin thing again, was that what Mom talked about when she said that Daddy dazzled her, cause if so, it was awesome. "Bye Nes."

I walked to the running car and threw my bag in the back and got in the passenger seat completely ignoring the fuming Jacob.

"Who was that?"

I watched Zac walk towards his car as Jake turned onto the road that would take me to my prison cell.

"Nessie!"

I jumped, "Zac. He's in my auto class," _change the subject, Nes, you can do it_, "Did you tell Dad to sign me up for that class? Or was it Rose?

"Don't change the subject, Renesemee," the sting from his tone physically hurt me and I rubbed my arm.

"His name is Zac, I sat next to him in Auto Tech, which I have sixth period. He walked me to my locker, screwed me in the bathroom and then walked me to the parking lot."

Okay, so I said _something_ like that, I might have left out a phrase somewhere.

"I don't like him."

"Then you're obviously heterosexual, which is perfectly fine, I still accept you. Either way, Jake, I just want you to be happy." See, if I added humor into the argument he might cool down and—

"Damn straight I'm heterosexual. Nessie, I don't want you hanging out with him." He mumbled something, I could quite make it out (he was getting awfully well at doing things like mumbling while surrounded by vampires or just by lil' old half-vamp me) but I was almost certain that he said, "I don't want you hanging out with boys."

"Well, I can't help that my parents sent me to a co-ed school, maybe you should take it up with them."

"Don't think I won't, Renesemee. I'm sure once I explain the situation Edward will understand the problem."

"That I was talking to a guy?"

"That you were talking to _that_ guy. I don't blame your parents for having you travel while you were still growing, that made sense. But to keep you so socially—stupid, it was completely wrong. You're not exactly superb at reading people, Nessie."

"Oh! And the 17 years you got outside of this family makes you a effing expert? You saw him through a tinted window, Jacob! You didn't even talk to him!" I was yelling now and I really couldn't help it. "You're just pissed that I was happy, it's not my problem that you aren't. I'm done with you blaming your shit on me, like everything about you is connected to me. We're imprinted, I get that! Protect me, whatever! But protect me from the Volturi, a paper cut, walking around the mall with toilet paper stuck to my shoe, not a cute boy that is genuinely interested in me."

I dug through my backpack, grabbed my iPod, blasted the volume (thank God for hearing that could never be harmed) and started out the window, edging closer and closer to the door. With my hand on the handle I waited for the moment that I could open the door and run to my room that had now become a safe haven instead of a prison cell.

**AN:** So, if you have a decent memory you'll know that changed my summary up a bit…that's because I changed the guy's name to pay homage to the Zac who went to my high school for a year or so before moving onto another _bigger_ and _better_ High School.

**ALSO:** I know that I've failed 3 semesters of math in my life… but somehow 33 reviews and 40 people having me on author alert doesn't make much sense. If someone can give me that equation, that would be great. c:


	9. Chapter Eight

**Edited and reposted.**

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Nine: _I'm all grown up and no one seems to have noticed._

Once my headphones were on, Jake drove silently through the town and up to the house, the moment the car was parked I grabbed my backpack and made for my room, ready to start doing homework and anything else that could keep my mind busy.

With the frustration of the argument still strong in my system it wouldn't take long for Jasper to figure out something was off about me then to tip off Dad who would then start probing my mind. I was generally pretty good about blocking Dad from getting anything out of me, even five-year-old 16-year olds need their privacy. But the whole frustration thing screwed that up again, I was sure to get lost in my thoughts and with me lost Dad was sure to find them.

Mom knocked on my door first, I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to smile. I tried to act like today was a normal day. "Come in," as the door opened I hid the piece of paper that I had written the order of who would come talk to me first. So far, I was right.

"So, how was school?" she came into the room and instantly went over to my bed and started making it.

"Well I went to the bathroom during lunch and someone offered me a joint, no effect though, must be the vampire thing."

"I hope you're joking, because if you aren't you'll be grounded for eternity."

"I am. The classes themselves will be fine, nothing too hard. My psych teacher seems to really like the whole consciousness field. My history teacher murdered someone… actually, she reminds me of Aunt Alice, short and energetic. We're reading The Great Gatsby in English, I'm not looking forward to that. I didn't like it the first time."

"But it's romantic!"

"Didn't Gatsby die?"

"The time era is romantic, Nessie!"

"Anyway, math is math, I'm in Trig and the teacher just got right to business. The room is hot though, it's like they don't have a circulation system or whatever. German is lame. Did you know I was in Auto Tech? Who's idea was that? Not that I'm complaining." Cause I _so_ wasn't complaining.

"Probably Jake's or Rose's."

"Well, yeah, I got that much."

"You should ask them."

I pushed my chair away from my desk, a break from homework would be nice… 15 minutes was way too long to be working on this anyway.

"Where's Rose?"

"She's out shopping with Esme, Jake's here though. He seemed frustrated when he walked in, but he won't say anything and he's doing a good job at blocking your dad," Good, Dad didn't need to know everything.

"I don't know his problem. Is it a full moon? Maybe he's PWSing." PWS: pre-wolfing syndrome. It didn't actually exist because the moon didn't affect him, but I gave him a hard time about it anyway.

She did her weird eyebrow twitch thing and then said, "Okay," drawing out the 'a' and making me certain she didn't believe me. This was my and Jake's deal though, not Mom's.

After Mom left Mama came in and picked up my dirty laundry, who needed to be tidy when other people were happy to do it? She asked me about my day and I agreed with what she had said earlier, I had done beautifully. I crossed the second person off my list.

I repeated my day as each person came into my room (exactly in the order I expected) I changed a few words and added or subtracted stories I knew each person would like or dislike.

Dad came in last (Jake wasn't on the list) but he didn't ask about my day and he didn't edge around what he wanted to ask. I began reciting Shakespeare's sonnets in Latin.

"Jake talked to me a little bit ago."

"That's awesome for you."

He pulled my chaise lounge over and sat down next to me. Would it be completely rude to decide to take a shower at this time?

"He said you two had a fight."

"Yeah, that happens sometimes."

"He said it was about a boy."

"Well, maybe he's jealous. I mean, he said he was straight but…"

"Renesemee," he reprimanded. He was only person to be able to turn my name into a chastisement. It was terrifying sometimes.

"Dad," I tried to mimic his tone but I failed, just like I did every time.

"Jacob told me about this guy, Zac. I don't think you should be hanging out with him either."

I reeled back, "Are you serious Dad?" I got up from my desk and shoved everything back into my backpack. "You haven't even met him," I caught myself on the 'yet' that almost came out of my mouth. "You're just as bad as Jake! I can't believe you're doing this! I don't want to hear this!"

I went into my bathroom and slammed the door shut, I turned the sink faucet on and the bathtub faucet. I didn't want to hear any of his attempts to get me out of this room. I'd stay in here till the drains clogged up, if that was how long it took to get him out.

The lock cracked and the door opened up into my room. Before I finished groaning the water was off and Dad was in front of me. "He told me what he said to you and I don't entirely disagree. You've been able to experience the world, Nessie, but not the people in the world. Partly because we were afraid you would attack them but also because we didn't want you getting attached to anyone. It wouldn't have been wise.

"Jake's not wrong with telling you that you might have misjudged this boy. You can't just trust someone because they have pretty eyes and a nice smile."

"It worked for you and Mom," I said through gritted teeth.

"I wanted to kill your mother when I first saw her."

"I may be socially dumb but don't you think I'm smart enough to catch on if someone wanted to kill me! Give me a little credit, Dad! I'm not a little girl anymore! I know who I am and I know what I want to do!"

"Nessie! Do you want me to go and meet him? I don't want to have to prove you wrong, because I'd much rather you and I come to an understanding. I know that you are in the same class, but outside of class you are not to see Zac."

"Dad you can't stop me from seeing him outside of class, that's not fair! I thought I was here to socialize! You never specified gender, that's not my fault."

"I'm not saying that you can't talk to boys, Carlisle's stated that you are a fully functioning female teen. We all learned that when you started menstruating, you have all those hormones in you. Whether I like it or not, it's only natural for you to want to talk to boys. But, not this boy, honey, maybe someone from one of your other classes."

"Is this because he's in _Auto Tech_," the people in the class didn't exactly appear to be geniuses, "because that's just stupid. Jake hasn't even graduated high school and you let me hang out with him. Besides, I'm in Auto Tech, does that make me stupid? Dad, you're being ridiculous."

"I am not being ridiculous and this is not about education levels. It's about types, Jake may not have finished school but I do trust him about things like this. Guys like Zac are all the same."

I got up from my seat on the floor and went over to my bed, ignoring my Dad I pulled my jeans off and I crept in between my sheets. Sleep would soon find me.

But it didn't. I was sleeping less and less lately.

I waited for Dad to leave but he didn't. Instead, he came over, kissed my forehead and said, "I love you Nessie, I just want the best for you."

I didn't respond because I knew it would hurt him. I needed him to understand what he was doing to me. I just wanted to be a normal teen right now and if that meant seeing Zac outside of class. The whole thing was getting ahead of itself though. And it was all Jake's fault, it wasn't like Zac had asked me out. He had just walked me to the car, not… done something to show that he was asking me out.

Unless it was some crazy guy code implanted in their genes that only guys knew and understood. So _maybe_ Jake freaking out could really bring me peace of mind. Maybe, Zac was going to ask me out and I just had to wait.

I looked at my clock. 6:55pm.

Waiting sucked.

**AN: **Channeled a little Jenny Humphrey in this blow out.

**Edit:** Originally, Nessie wasn't menstruating. That doesn't make sense because then Jake never would have imprinted on her.

_Also, if you are registered please, please, please get out and vote today. Let's be the generation of American that actually votes. It's sad that more people vote for __American Idol__ than the president. Think about it, Carrie Underwood is the only person to come off that show and have a lasting career so far...a Hollywood celebrity has very little control over how you live your life, the president however... (s)he has a little more say._

_*__I realize more people can vote for _AI_ because of the age thing, but the statistics still show that not enough people are voting._


	10. Chapter Nine

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Nine: _sneaking out was so much easier on TV._

I got up and took the things out of my backpack, I had only shoved everything in their earlier as something to do. It was in no way near ready to take back to school. I pulled my binder out and sat on my bed, uncrumpling the papers I had completed. I realized that I needed my schedule if I was going to find my classes again. I was still growing at some slow rate and my vampire memory had yet to kick in completely. Apparently cute guy + plus angry Jake and Dad canceled out the room numbers in my head.

My phone began buzzing, a blocked number was on the ID. I frowned, but answered. _His_ voice answered back. I flopped back onto the bed and stared at my canopy.

"Hey, Zac," I said quietly.

"Hey," he whispered back, "What's with the whispering? Are we hiding?"

_Yes._ "Uhm, I'm not supposed to be on the phone after 7. Wait—how did you get my number?"

He laughed a cute, guilty laugh, "I kind of stole your schedule after school. When you were getting things from your locker… I hope you don't mind."

_You can steal whatever you want from me._ "How am I supposed to get to my classes tomorrow?"

"Well," his voice drew the word out making it perfect, "I could pick you up tomorrow and give it to you then."

_Abort Nessie! Abort!_ "I don't know, Zac… my parents."

"Oh, the parents," he understood the dread. "Did your brother tell your parents about me?"

"Brot—yeah, he did. He's a little overprotective. He doesn't have a job."

"Well, maybe I can talk to him tomorrow when I pick you up," when did I agree to that? "I can show him I'm not all bad."

"No…" _I don't want you to be Alpo._ "He… sleeps in," I explained. I had stupidly given the information that he didn't have a job.

"He wouldn't wake up early for you? Can't be _that_ overprotective then!"

"He's… he's a monster when he's woken up early. He's stays up late… on the computer… doing… guy stuff." _Oh, ew, Nessie! Where'd that come from?_

Word vomit, complete word vomit. This was turning into a disgusting conversation and Jake was turning into my lazy, older brother.

But, Zac just laughed, "Oh!" There was a pause. _Yeah, where _do_ you go from there?_ "So, are you going to let me pick you up tomorrow? Please? I'll bring you breakfast. I'll _make_ you breakfast."

How could I resist a man who cooked?

In theory. I mean, in all the movies the good guys were the ones who cooked.

"How can I say no, now, Zac?"

"Well that _was_ my intention, Nessie." I gave him the address… well, I gave him the house's address from four blocks over. I'd just tell Mama I was walking to school. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Nessie."

"Good night, Zac."

"Good night, Nessie. Sweet dreams."

I resisted the urge to squeal when I hung the phone up. What would those girls say during lunch tomorrow? What did it mean when a guy said 'sweet dreams' was there some translation somewhere? On a bathroom stall maybe?

I slid my phone back into my bag and hand caught on a slip of paper. "Shit!"

I had detention today. Maybe Papa would write me a note; temporary insanity induced by boy. TIIBB. That was a medical condition, right? I'm sure there were plenty of girls who would back me up on this one.

I crawled back under the covers, balled the detention slip up in my hand and tossed it into the wastebasket. Sleep soon found me, but it did not keep me there long. It never did these days, soon there would come a night where I did not sleep at all.

I got dressed silently, developing my plan. I was walking to school, that was it. Lots of people walked to school… just not too many people who lived ten miles away from the school and had access to a multitude of cars. Oh yeah, this would be _so_ easy. Like Uncle Jasper not consuming the entire town.

I took my backpack downstairs early, Mama was sitting on the couch sorting through furniture magazines. "Hey, I think I'm gonna walk to school today… if that's alright…"

She looked up at me, startled. I'd be startled too if someone told me they were going to walk the ten miles to school; vampire or not, it was a little crazy.

"Are you sure, Nessie? I can drive you." She gave me that look that said she was doing her best to figure out why I wanted to hike to school today.

"I just—I just want some time to think. I'll walk fast, I won't be late."

She gave me one last weird look before letting me walk out the door without saying goodbye to anyone. _Free, free at last._ I wasn't going to wonder where everyone else was, because I probably didn't want to know. You'd think I lived with rabbits rather than vampires.

I walked slowly to the corner, the logistics of this sneaking around was hard. I had to leave early enough for it to be clear that I was walking to school, but I didn't want to wait forever for Zac to come and pick me up. I sat down on the dirt road and leaned against the fence that had once probably kept horses in. Keeping horses was a bit impractical for a family of vampires. I drew designs in the dirt while I waited for his car to pull up.

It rolled up and over the dirt road minutes before the tardy bell would ring. I reminded myself that I had wanted him to pick me up and that I had never designated a time, that was my own fault. I got into the dark car carefully, papers and cups were strewed on the floor of the passenger seat and I wasn't sure if they were important or not.

"You're fine," he smiled, sensing my unease at possibly ruining something on the floor. I grinned back and laughed a little. I slid my backpack down and he handed me a warm paper napkin.

"What is this?" I tapped the warm paper and I sniffed. _Gag._ It was my breakfast.

"I promised you breakfast."

_And you, Nessie, were stupid enough to agree to that. Eat it and smile._

"Oh! Thanks!" I opened the makeshift container to find two Pop-tarts smeared in hard brown frosting. I should have gone hunting last night, it would have been a much better way to spend my time.

I picked at the pastry as Zac drove us to school.

"So, why were you sitting on the dirt? I could have sent you a text to tell you I was there."

"Oh, uhm. I just needed to get out the house," I tried my best to sound convincing.

"You told your parents you were walking to school, didn't you?"

Was I that transparent?

"Yeah. My dad pretty much laid down the law and said I couldn't see you outside of class." _Oh, way to be the cool kid, Nessie!_

He laughed and I snuck a look at him, he ran his fingers through his hair and continued grinning. What was he thinking? Was he embarrassed for me? Because I was certainly embarrassed for myself.

"Well, we'll just have to find a way around that. I'd really like to hang out with you more than just car rides and auto tech."

I smiled and the feeling reached all the way down to my kneecaps. "I'd like to hang out with you more too."

"Really?" I nodded. "Let's go on a date then."

"My dad won't let me," I spewed out before realizing what had just happened. I, Renesmee Carlie Cullen, was just asked on a date. A real, live date. I pinched my arm and remained awake. _Yes!_

"Just tell them you're studying at someone's house," his hand reached out an stroked my arm. It was so cool compared to my skin.

"I can't lie to my family. They're really—intuitive." If it wasn't Daddy reading my mind it was Alice seeing the future, and if it wasn't that it was Jasper sensing my dishonest feelings… and if all else failed Mom would you her Mom powers and I would be locked away in my room for the rest of eternity.

"Renesmee," he drew out my name, but instead of it coming off as whiny and complaining it was sweet and enduring and made my insides melt. "Figure it out. Convince them I'm good. A sweet face like yours, I'm sure you can get your daddy to see your way."

I rolled my eyes. That had worked, when my wants were purely innocent.

"I'll talk to him."

**AN: **I didn't want to update yet but this chapter either needs to go up now or it's going to impossibly long. You can blame _mistresselektra_ for the long wait though. c: She forces me to make icons for her stories and she terrifies me. :p

(In all seriousness if you are over 17 you should go read Wedding Cake Traditions Gone Wrong.)

**AGAIN:I'm _not_ reading through this because I'm fairly busy. If you see an error that actually effects the reading of this, please tell me.**

**ALSO:** I'm babysitting a four year old today for about six hours. If you know an four year old boys you know how rambunctious and crazy they can be. I'm a college student (read: I'm part sloth.) If you love me and want to shore sympathy review me. FFN even moved the link to make it easier for you.

See!


	11. Chapter Ten

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Ten: _Daddy May I…_

I sat down next to Kayla again in my Psychology class.

"Alright, we're just going to get right into it. Since this is AP I'm gonna assume you've had a basic introduction to psychology. If you haven't… catch up. We're gonna start the week off with a fun little movie about human sexuality." The teacher fiddled with the VCR and managed to get the blue screen to the black Warning screen of the ancient VHS, "It's very uplifting."

"Uplifting?" asked one of the boys in the back. "I might have the sequel, what's this one called?"

"Sorry, Mr. Thornton, not that kind of video. Let's save those for home viewing."

"No problem," the Thornton kid slid down his seat and placed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. How did this kid get into AP?

I turned to Kayla and asked her, "His family's a Yale legacy. The school gets tons of money from his parents and in return Riley gets tons of rec letters and great grades in all the right classes. Pretty shitty."

"I thought stuff like that only happened in private schools or on TV or something."

"We might as well be a private school, North High isn't that great, most parents go to the extremes to get their kids into this school. My parents probably bought our class set of books for this class," she sounded slightly appalled. What had my parents done to get me in here?

I didn't want to know.

Kayla walked with me towards the quad, "You have math next?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Environmental Science, over in the 800 wing," she dilly dallied and we stalled in the arch way of the gates, "I wanted to ask you something. It's just something I've heard."

I frowned, were people catching on. So quickly? I was good at being human, mostly cause I was half human. I tripped on my way to History this morning didn't I? That counted as human. Should I not have caught myself? Alice would have killed me for ripping my jeans…

"Go ahead," I stuttered out.

"I heard Zac Posen asked you out," my eyes bugged out of my sockets. News traveled _that_ fast? "Daisy Lemay saw you two in his car, I just thought you should know that you should be careful around him. He's not one to look for a long time girlfriend, or a girlfriend in general. He'll just use you, Nessie, and you seem like a good person. I don't think you deserve that."

"How would you even know, Kayla? Why do you even care? Are you jealous? And maybe he didn't ask me out! Maybe he just lives near me—"

"He lives near North High, Nessie," Kayla said, dismayed at my disbelief, as if I could help it, "everyone knows you bought the old Tucker house out on 143."

"Look, Kayla, I don't know what your problem is, but Zac is cool. So what if he's interested in me? It's not my fault all the girls here are boring."

"Nessie, that's not what I'm saying!"

She started to continue, but I cut her off, "I'm going to be late," I turned on my heel and began speed walking to my class, not that it mattered because I so wasn't going to math. I was not in the mood to sit in a stuffy classroom and be bored to tears by something I had caught on to ages ago.

When I got to the math hall I walked in through the doors and right towards the ones that led to the street that would lead to freedom, "Miss Cullen! Exactly who I wanted to see." I stopped and turned to my left. Great. An administrator's office and the one who assigned me my detention was standing right in the doorway and smiling at me, "Why don't you come into my office?"

"Can't. Orthodontist appointment," I began to smile, trying to work some half-vamp magic on him, but than pulled my lips tight trying to cover my white and straight teeth.

"All students under the age of 18 must be signed out by their parents, Miss Cullen. Surely you know that," I huffed because of course I didn't know that. This was my first time in a school, "Right this way," he pointed towards a door in the office. A door that led to doom, "I have some free time, surely we can talk this out. I'd hate to have to call your father."

I retained a snort. While, I'm sure he was referring to the father that was on my records (Papa) a confrontation with my Dad would have been amusing.

"My dad's a very busy doctor, I'd really hate to bother him, sir."

"That's great, I'm glad we're on the same page, just come right in. I have Twizzlers on my desk."

Could he say that to minors?

I walked into his office trying to keep a pleasant demeanor on my face.

I sat down in the rigid chair and pulled my right leg up and under my other leg. "I'm really sorry about the tardy and what just happened right now. I've been homeschooled and this is my first time going to a public school. I know I should have read the school handbook, but you know teens," I smiled and tried to be charming, "we can't even read the Terms of Agreement for iTunes!"

"I would assume that school is much higher on your priorities than iTunes, Miss Cullen."

I smiled brighter, "Oh, of course it is, I was just saying…" that you have a big stick up your ass.

"Let's try and get a few straight, Miss Cullen. I expect you to be in class and on time every day for the rest of your time spent here, if I find you outside of class again, every minute tardy will be a day in detention. Is that understood?"

"Of course, sir."

"Now," he turned to his computer and pulled up what appeared to be my schedule, "what do you have next?"

"Math, with King."

"Mmm, I see."

As if I would lie to him at this point.

He scribbled down a note, I assumed it would excuse my tardiness, and handed it to me. "I'll be calling Mr. King to make sure you made it to class alright, Miss Cullen."

"Okay sir."

&

I made it through to Auto Tech and nearly ran to my seat from German.

"Hey Zac," I smiled.

"Hello Nessie. Thought of any ways to convince your dad about that date?" he eyes charmed me.

"Not really," I shook my head, my curls smacked my face and I pushed them back. "I'm probably just going to wing it. That tends to work best."

"Well, good luck. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you."

"Thanks," I pulled out my notebooks in a desperate attempt to actually pay attention today. Despite the lined paper on my desk and the pencil in my hand I wasn't able to manage to take any notes. Instead, I kept sneaking glances over to Zac, who was kicking back in his desk without a care in the world. How could he pull something like that off?

After some time the bell rang. I pushed my belongings back into my bag and made my way to the door. "Wait!" Zac grabbed onto my arm. "Can I drive you home?"

"I might have a ride," I hadn't told anyone that I was walking home as well as to school, which was an epic fail on my part. Although, perhaps not. If Zac got anywhere near my house someone might clue in and smell him. I probably already smelled like him because I had sat in his car. I prayed that no one clued into that. I mean, I probably smelled like a lot of people. I had sat in a lot of desks today.

"Well, if I can't drive you home than can I at least ask you out on a proper date?"

_YES! YES! __**YES!**_

"I don't see why not," is what I said, what I mean was 'Oh, yes please. I'd love it if you did. You wouldn't live past my driveway, but, hey, you don't need to know that!'

He smiled, that smile that seemed to make his eyes sparkle and the sun brighten and the birds chirp and the flowers bloom. "So, Nes, I was thinking, maybe next Friday we could get together and do something. Go out on a date."

"That sounds really nice." _Nice? Nice? When did I become prim and proper? _"I mean, I'll have to talk to my parents." _Nice recovery, noob._ I took a deep breath and hoped something cool would come out, "I'd love to."

His eyes narrowed, I desperately wanted to know what he was thinking about. "Alright, Friday night?"

"Sure."

We continued walking and when we left Senior Hall I saw _it_. Shiny, silver and a constant in my life. Mom gave him grief for sticking to the same car year after year, but Daddy had yet to get anything different. His car was always silver and always manufactured by Volvo.

I looked at Zac, who was still being infinitely cool in his leather jacket and sunglasses. I looked back to Daddy who was looking furious in his car, there could have been steam coming out of his ears. A million cuss words went through my head and Daddy raised his eyebrow.

"I have to go Zac. I'll talk to you later," once I come back from Hell.

"Wait, what time am I gonna pick you up on Friday?"

Daddy rolled down the passenger window, "Nessie!"

My life was over.

"I'll call you," I promised him and then ran to the car. I threw my bag into the back seat and slid into the leather seat up front. "How's life, Daddio?" I asked uneasily.

Instead of answering he pulled the car out of the lot at a speed that caused the tires to screech. We drove in silence, Dad rubbing indents into the steering wheel and me clicking my fingernails on the window. He turned the wrong direction and began driving down a deserted road.

"Dad?" He continued to drive, but he blew out a frustrated breath. "Daddy? You're not gonna, like, put me out to pasture or something, right?"

"God, of course not, Nessie. I'm just—I just need to talk to you, without being interrupted by your mother or your silly aunt."

"Which one?"

"I was being all inclusive."

He pulled over to the side of the road, went to turn off the car then stopped, "Do you need the heater on still?"

"I'm fine right now. Daddy—"

"Nessie, wait," he turned the key and the car sat quietly, "I heard this boy's mind today."

"And? _Please be good, please be good._

"His thoughts are not—he thinks of you in ways that I do not wish you to be thought about. He's no different than any other guy."

"Daddy, I can't be a nun or something. I'm going to be around guys, you let me be around Jacob."

"Jacob doesn't—" he stopped what he was saying and winced like his femoral artery had been severed.

"Jacob doesn't what, Dad?"

"Jacob—Jake—nothing, Nessie. Zac is a guy, he thinks you are beautiful, something I have always known. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't get hurt Daddy. Besides, you'll always be my favorite," I reached over to hug him and he wrapped his arms around me as well.

"Good, we'd have some problems if that wasn't the case." I laughed at his quasi-threat.

"So," I started slowly, "does this mean I can go on the date?"

He sighed. Had he hoped that our heart to heart talk would make me realize that I only had room for one guy in my life, and that guy was to be my dad?

"Yes, Renesemee, you may go on a date."

**AN: **I'm sorry this took so long. I was at such a wall when it came to Nessie and Eddie's father-daughter talk. I'm not a big talker so, father-daughter talks are fairly one sided for me. It was hard to think of what they would say… until I realized something. Something you may or may not clue into in a few chapters. This is the longest chapter so far and I do have the next three chapters already written! They were actually the first things to be written after the prologue!

I may or may not post before mid-January. I know, what?!?! What about those three chapters? I'm not sure of my Internet access at my Dad's new house (where I'm spending the holidays). I'll do my best.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Seven: _there are things I haven't learned in school that would have come in handy at this time._

I smiled in the mirror. I hadn't asked for anyone's help tonight because it was _my_ night. It was my very first date and I wanted it to be as normal as possible. As _human_ as possible. Which meant not having the superb skills of my vampire relatives help me out. So what if I had to take off my eyeliner three times? I was going to have a completely human experience, just what everyone had signed me up for when I came here.

After 45 minutes I was perfect. My eyeliner was straight and even, my cheeks were a perfect shade of pink and my lipstick had stayed away from my teeth. I had spent hours picking out the perfect outfit. Blue patent leather ballet flats, black stirrup leggings and a white button-up shirtdress. Over the shirtdress I wore a lilac colored vest and a gold chain link necklace. I twisted my hair up into a messy bun, tamed the strays with a curling iron and left it at that. I grabbed my jean jacket and the leather backpack Momma had given me over four years ago in the forest. With one last look in the mirror I went over to the door, placed my hand on the knob and stopped.

Between getting ready and the end of the night, this was the moment I was dreading the most. I didn't know how anyone was going to react. I didn't want anyone to dote on me, but I was smart enough to know that hope was futile. I figured that by now most teens were used to doting parents and relatives, in their 16 years they had had recitals, performances, science fairs and school awards. I had had none of that. Every step of my life had been on the same span of the roller coaster: _amazing._ I walked early and spoke early. And by early I mean in my first few months of life. At age three Jasper snagged copies of the SATs and had me take them. Perfect 2400. And I finished every test with vast amounts of time to spare.

So, each step I took was brilliant and off the charts… and somewhere in there it got boring. Everyone expected me to catch on quickly or already know how to do it. I could play any song on the piano after watching Dad play it once through at a normal speed, but everyone expected me to perform that way. And yet, with the commotion that was made when I told Mom and Dad that I had a date it appeared that this was not the way they expected me to perform. Did they think that my odd DNA would cause me to never be attracted to someone?

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

It was now or never and short of jumping out the window I was stuck going out into the living where my nightmare awaited. Of course, jumping out the window would provide me no safety since they would all just use their super speed to bombard me with whatever they wanted to say; words of advice, a short farewell or taunting remarks. No matter what anyone else said Emmett would be the one to make a few mocking comments before sending me on my way. _This_ was going to be enjoyable, like a root canal… which I had never had but Discovery Health didn't censor that last puke-umentary.

The doorknob creaked and I heard someone step on a floorboard below causing the old wood to emit a sound. I sighed, just as I thought; they were all down there waiting to pounce on me the moment I got down the stairway. Maybe this was just like those stupid speeches I had been forced to give on Monday. The nerves before hand were unbearable, my mind was numb during it but afterwards it was great because it was over. And the one thing I had learned from that was that you had to go first when it came to these kinds of things. Loosely translated that meant I just had to run down those stairs and get this whole thing over and done with. I walked out the door into the dark hallway and let it slam hard behind me, no use trying to be sly about going down there. I knew that the pit of snakes was what awaited, at least announcing my presence might take away the hint of surprise that going down there would bring. Perhaps the mass of people hitting me with hugs would be lessened.

I took the stairs one at a time, no use tripping down them and breaking my leg. I'd love to see everyone stumbling on their words as Papa set my painless leg with Zac watching, but most of all I'd want to get a camera for his reaction when it healed before he could run out the door. I peeked around the corner to see my family awaiting my arrival. Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch reading the same book, Dad waiting for Mom to finish the page before turning it. Rose and Emmett were playing some shoot-em-up game on the Xbox on silent. Mama and Papa were sitting at the counter, Mama reading an interior decorating mag and Papa reading a medical journal of some sort. I knew that Jake had gone running earlier and the day, I guess he hadn't made it back yet. Alice and Jasper were having some disgusting moment where they spoke in soft whispers and stared into each other's identical eyes.

A very typical night in every aspect, it would take the drastic turn when I rounded the corner and they saw me. I knew they knew that I knew that they knew that I was there, but what was wrong with savoring the last few moments of peace and quiet? Was it so absolutely wrong of me to want to start off this date as tranquil as possible? When Mom had handed me the school's pamphlet of classes I had been in awe of all the classes they offered; ceramics, weight training, Vietnam Literature, AP Environmental Science, Office Aiding. All of these classes were bizarre and far from what I was expecting, reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic, I thought that was what school was all about. Those were useful classes… but why wasn't there a class to explain how to handle your paranormal family the moment before a date?

How useless _was_ high school?

I looked at the watch that was hanging from my bag's handle. Zac would be here in 15 minutes. _Now or never, Nessie. You can still go jump out the window, if you make the tree you won't even break anything._ Two more steps drug me into the living room and I closed my eyes and tensed up. I knew that every single person was staring at me.

**Alice: **_(surprised)_You look really cute.

**Rose: **_(blunt) _I want those leggings back. Clean. _(smile)_

**Jasper: **_(shake head, smile)_

**Emmett: **I'm still not okay with this.

**Dad: **Me neither.

**Mom and Mama: **Guys!

**Papa:** Is Zac coming in?

_This_ was it? That was all they were going to do? They hadn't even gotten up. I'll give Emmett credit for pausing the video game, I suppose, but still… this was not what I was expecting. How easy was this! A horn honked in the driveway, Zac was early, I made for the door like it was the Thanksgiving's Day Sale at Macys. "Whoa, hold it, Missy!" Papa said, spinning in the chair at the booth. My feet stopped letting my torso and head catapult forward, left foot in the air, my right foot and the hand on the door were the only things that were stopping me from completely tipping over. I refused to turn around, maybe he was just joking, I closed my eyes and pursed my lips together. "Stop. Turn around, you're not going," Papa said.

**AN: **This was written almost three months ago, rat me out if something isn't consistent!!


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Life Right Now**

Chapter Eight: _those flakes in the snow globe aren't snow; they're the pieces of my life._

Do you know how hard it is to turn around on one foot? When I fell against the doorjamb Emmett laughed, but I just rolled my eyes and Rosalie shushed him when her hand whacked his cheek. "Gramps!" I begged. I knew exactly what he was going to ask and in this crowd I was going to lose the battle if I didn't state my case correctly. But Papa just raised his eyebrow.

"I don't think I'm okay with you going out with someone who isn't polite enough to come in and introduce himself," Dad said.

"News flash! It's not the 1600's anymore! Check a calendar, much?" I squared off my shoulders, "How are you going to stop me?" I countered.

Alice raised her hand, "Uhm, psychic," she pointed down at her head. "Jasper nailed your window shut while you were at school."

"Are you serious? And don't look into my date. Please!"

"Yes, Nessie, I'm serious. And I won't look into your date, mostly since you're not going if this guy doesn't come in."

"Please don't make him come in," I was about to start crying. Zac would be terrified in a room full of vampires, whether he knew what they were or not. Humans might be natural prey to most vampires, but just because they were lower on the food chain didn't make them stupid. They somehow knew when to stay away from things that could harm them and even though my family of vampires wasn't going to harm them it didn't mean that they wouldn't want to. Tension would be on high.

"Why can't he come in, honey?" Mom asked. "We don't bite."

Dad laughed. "Humans."

"I'll make an exception," Emmett and Rose said in accord. Alice laughed, obviously seeing that their threats were empty, but then looked up at Jasper, frowning.

"I'll make up my mind when I see him," he said nonchalantly as if the last minute decision to eat or not eat my (now potential) first date was the most obvious choice in the world.

"There will be no eating of Renesmee's date," Papa ordered.

"We'd have to move," Mama said, doing her best not to smile. Papa snorted at her reasoning.

I was about to give up, "Come on you guys, he'd be totally scared off coming into this room. I'm pretty sure there's nothing like predatory parents to scare a date off," I looked towards Mom and Dad.

"I wasn't scared off when I met everyone," Mom said casually, "at least I don't think I was. It's a little hazy."

I groaned, "Yeah, well from what I've heard you weren't exactly normal when you were human. I'm not sure you were all there. Maybe Papa can do a brain scan, confirm that the portion of your brain that tells you that you're in trouble is missing."

"Excuse me, missy," Dad said doing that creepy one eyebrow raise thing that surely had to be some genetic defect, "your mother's fear system is perfectly intact."

"Yeah!" Mom spoke up, "I was afraid of blood," she said matter-of-factly.

I copied the genetic defect my Dad had given me, one eyebrow up and mouth open, "And this made her a great vampire candidate?"

"Hey, you could ground her for that," Emmett said happily, "she couldn't go on her date then!"

I could feel the anger welling up inside of me, it was the kind of anger that needed released. All I wanted to do was to go on a date like a normal teen, that was it! I flung my hands out, trying to get the emotions out of me, instead I flung everything I was feeling towards the people in the room. My angry thoughts hit them full force and they looked at me with disapproval. I groaned, "I'm sorry!"

I felt extremely bad for Jasper who was leaning over now and clutching his head in pain, "That wasn't necessary!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I just wanted to go on a date like every other normal teen does! I thought that was the point of this whole thing. I thought I was supposed to be going to a high school and figure out how to act like everyone else. This isn't going to be like Mom and Dad, it's just one date. We're only sixteen, if that's what you're worried about," well, I was sixteen. He was seventeen or eighteen. I wasn't going to supply answers to questions they weren't asking. "He asked me and I didn't know how to say no. He's cute and popular and so what if he didn't come to the door," I turned to look at my father, "from what I've heard you didn't exactly use Mom's door all the time either."

"Bella didn't have a decent uncle to go and nail that window shut!" As if that window would have stopped him, I heard the story of Mom and Dad more then enough to know that no nailed window was going to stop him.

"Just let me go."

"You'll be back by ten," Papa decided.

"The movie doesn't get out till 12:15!"

"12:30," Dad conceded. "You have a curfew… actually, this town has a curfew. If you come home with the cops you'll never be going on a date ever again. _Ever_."

"That's a long time," Rose clarified for me. I gave her a face and went to the door again. I opened it and saw Zac waiting out there in his cool car with the windows down. His tanned arm was out the window and he raised it up, as if asking me what was taking so long. I smiled and I raised my own hand, asking him for just one more moment. He grinned and rested back into his seat.

"Thank you. 12:45, I know. I'll be back."

"12:30!" Papa yelled. _Dammit!_

I peeked my head back through the door, "If I get one phone call from any of you I'll never talk to you again. _Ever._ That's a long time."

* * *

**AN: **I really enjoyed your last response. **la saboteuse **great catch as to _why_ Nessie couldn't leave! As for everyone else, shame on you! What kind of boyfriends do you have?


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**AN:** Basically, I'm a terrible person. I'll try and get one more chapter out this weekend, hopefully finish it. I completed all my homework for the weekend already so I should have plenty of time. I start work on Monday so my time will be limited. :c

**Life Right Now**

Chapter 13: _this is where I learn that life isn't like the movies. Except the ones that have PSAs at the end of them._

"Come on," Zac said from the driver's seat. I skipped from the porch to his car, I couldn't help myself. I was going out on my first date with a hot senior! I was giddy, if I sneezed I'd probably sneeze rainbows and kittens. The happiness was oozing out of me now that I had finally gotten out of the house. I slid into the open passenger side at looked at Zac, all dashing and rebellious looking. He smiled at me and _I swear_ there was one of those sparkly things flashing on his perfect teeth. His ice blue eyes were glinting and standing out in sharp contrast from his dark hair. The whole thing just made me want to swoon like some feeble girl in a bad romance novel. I might have been brought up to frown on that form of abhorrent literature, but it didn't mean I didn't want to sometimes feel like those women.

"Are you hungry?"

For you. "A little."

He smiled like he knew what I was thinking. "Well, I know you're new here so I wanted to show you this place just outside of town. Not a lot of people know about it but they have the best burgers there. We can get it to go and eat at the show," he was driving a little erratically, with a few fingers lazily on the bottom of the wheel, the other out the window and he kept looking over at me. I was almost certain that the majority of the time was spent looking at me rather than at the road. I wondered what the guys would have to say about this. They would either commend him for his driving skills or pull me from school forever because human teens just weren't safe drivers.

What would they do then though, move me into a retirement home?

The car was silent as we pulled into what looked to be a dive of a place. "They really make good burgers here?"

"Honest. Would I lead you astray?"

I didn't want to say no. "They make them with hamburger, right? Cow. Not, dog or something." I looked around for a pound or veterinary clinic thankfully the place was deserted.

"I'm sure they make them with cows." He was looking at me suspiciously now and I was worried that I had suddenly blown the entire date just by asking that one, stupid question. I couldn't help that I was worried about the original origin of my food. Even if I was going to throw most of it up at the end of the night I wanted whatever entered my stomach to be organic as possible. "What do you want?" We had arrived at the window to order our food and I hadn't even looked at the menu.

"Uhm. What's good here?"

"Everything."

"Oh. Okay." Thanks. Way to be opinionated.

"Uhm, just a burger. Rare," I clarified. If I was going to have to eat this I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.

"Rare?"

"Yeah. It's… I don't know… it's how my family eats meat. I get, uh, sick if I eat when it's totally cooked."

"That's really weird," he just shook his head though and ordered for me. _Please like weird, please like weird. _We drove up to the next window and Zac put his arm around me, I had to bite hard into my lip to stop me from smiling. The sun had yet to go down and I didn't want to look like some junior who hadn't gone on a date or had a boyfriend…. or hadn't talked to a male outside of her own family. His hand wrapped around my shoulder, my inner self was doing a major happy dance. "Are you okay?" he asked. "You feel really warm."

_Crap!_ Of course I hadn't thought about that. Everyone I ever came in contact with was totally used to my extreme body heat. This dating thing was going to be hard. "Oh, uhm, it's a medical condition. My temperature just runs a little higher than everyone else's."

Another weird face from him, "Well that must be nice on cold days."

"Not really," I said naturally, "it hurts to pick up items that are cold. But I guess you get used to it." Could I have been anymore of a geek? All I needed was a honkin' pair of glasses and I'd be set down the road I seemed to be going in.

"Wow," he shook his head and reached out for the bag the person inside was handing him. "Here," he placed the bag in my lap and began driving recklessly towards the drive-in. I looked at the greasy mess inside and blanched. Perhaps I could roll the window down when we got to the drive-in because this stuff was disgusting.

It was another silent drive while Zac zipped down the windy, lonely road. I spent 15 minutes playing out a silent tune on my thigh that was doubling as an invisible piano. "So, did you finish the homework for Auto?"

He grunted, "It's my third time taking it, Houck's my uncle, I kinda slide through, Babe." _Babe._ I didn't like the way that name sounded on his tongue. I didn't like the name at all. The way Babe came out of his mouth was so—trashy. I liked Honey and Sweetheart; those names were appealing and tender. Realization dawned on me, those were the names that Jake called me. But that didn't mean anything, Jake called Mom honey too. Jake was like the caring older brother everyone always wanted. Those names coming from Zac would mean something wonderful.

"Nes, did you hear me?"

"What?" I was shaken out of my thoughts and I didn't like the feeling that they left with me.

"Where do you want me to park? Near the front or near the back?"

I hadn't realized that we had reached the theatres. I hadn't been here since Jake took me out with the telescope when we first got here, when it was just us and the telescope the lot had seemed vast but in reality it was pretty small and dinky. The screen was starting to fray around the edges and the foliage around it was in desperate need of trimming, I wasn't sure how anyone was going to be able see the top of the screen through the dead leaves of the trees that surrounded the entire lot. "Back I guess." The front was crowded with cars, I didn't need to have a panic attack from suddenly becoming claustrophobic.

Zac maneuvered the car to the back of the lot and turned the car off after rolling the windows down. "You have to use the little speakers in order to get any sound. The radio doesn't actually work too well out here, even though they say it does."

The movie started but I paid little attention to the action on the screen. With the accepted silence, the dark and only the two of us in the confined space of his car it was hard to ignore the empty space between us. His front seat was a bench, unhindered by a compartment or gear shift. Twelve minutes in, I finished as much of the horrid meal as I could. Fifteen minutes in, his arm came around my shoulder. Twenty-five, I'm pulled closer. Thirty-seven, his nose is skimming my temple. I rotate my shoulder, using some foreign form of sign language to tell him to back off. I've never realized how weird noses are. Forty-two, his hand is in my hair. _This isn't a double feature right._ Sixty-eight, _shit_! His lips are on my neck.

"Zac..." is all that manages to come out. He takes it for what it's not.

"Nessa, baby, you have such smooth skin. It's so warm. You hot for me, baby?"

_No! No! No! I'm five years old! Get off me! Get off me! Get off me!_

"Zac, stop," I push him away and lean my head far away from him, his arm doesn't permit me to move far though.

Seventy-two minutes, he's rubbing my shoulder. Is that another sign from this weird sign language? Does it mean 'I'm sorry'? Eighty-six, my head is leaning straight again. Ninety-three, the credits begin to roll. _Bathroom, I need to go to the bathroom_. It's a marvelous idea.

Zac pulls the speaker off from his cracked window, he's rolls the window back up and smiles over at me. The moonlight catches his smile and makes an eerie image, "Don't want you gettin' cold, baby."

I can hear the noise from the other cars, a song about pop corn is playing. The next movie will begin in twenty minutes. Eighteen minutes. Twelve.

Zac's on top of me suddenly, knees on either side of my crushed hips. _No! _I push back weakly. I can hardly figure out how to defend myself as a human would, but no one had filled me in on this rule. Did it still apply when I was in danger? Human danger.

My high school experience was not supposed to include this. I did not check the box off that said _sexual trauma on first date_. Just my luck, finally getting more than what I asked for.

"Zac, no!" I pushed with no improvement. His lips were coming up to my own; I was choking on them. I had to be. I was coughing and sputtering.

"Baby, come on." He tilted my head back and began kissing my neck again, my neck that would never be clean. His hand, the one that wasn't trying to contain my own, pulls my leggings down. My shoes drop off in the process.

What would Jacob do? What would he want me to do? What he tell me to do? "NO!" I yelled at him, with all my might I pushed back on him and he was shoved into the strong metal door of the car. The safety glass cracked and his face contorted as he gained the breath that was knocked out of him. His back was surely injured but I couldn't bring myself to care, I wasn't my mother. I opened the door, grabbed my bag and shoes and ran for it. My shoes were flip-flopping against my feet which was irritating but I let it go. There were worst things that could be going on—

Oh God!

I stopped running and retched on the side of the road that I had come upon. Old blood and that repulsive meal. Out of necessity I breathed back in while standing back, it's not my blood, which is a sickening relief.

I wipe my mouth and swish and spit my saliva around a few times. I walk slowly back home, gauging the time by the ascending moon. I'm home just after the moon starts to sag in the sky. If only everyone was human, then I could walk to my room in the silence of the house, shower and sleep. Sleep it all away.

But that's not the case.

Rosalie frowns at me when I walked in, "You smell gross! And where the hell are my leggings?" She looks more like an irritated older sister and less like a interested aunt.

"Uhm, Zac got sick. That's why I'm home early. He threw up and some of it got on the leggings. I assumed you wouldn't want them back."

"Oh, ew, of course not."

I went into my room and sprawled on my bed. Safe.

**AN: **I'd appreciate reviews. Reviews make me happy and… cause I don't have anything else written for this story…. I could just stop now…. if that's what you want. Your choice.

And everything will be explained in the next chapter(s).


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Eclipse_ or the quote taken from it, that's owned by SM. I do own a copy of _Eclipse_, but not the idea. I also don't own _Romeo and Juliet_, that's own by Mr. Shakespeare.

**AN:** I listened to a lot of Taylor Swift during this chapter.

**Life Right Now**

Chapter 14: _I'd talk all day if I could spend all night with you…_

I sat on my bed, covering my thoughts from the prying mind of my father. I couldn't believe what had just happened. Zac had—Zac had tried to—

It was too much. Something bad happened, I got away and that was it. Alice kept her promise and didn't search for anything, I was strong enough that I knew Dad wouldn't be able to see anything, I couldn't do anything about Uncle Jasper though. I'd have to make up something if he mentioned anything. Not that he would, I was a teenager and my emotions were a roller coaster to begin with.

I pulled my dress off and curled into my bed sheets, the furry blanket that Aunt Rose had given me as a joke was soft against my skin. It had been a few months ago when Jake had pissed me off. I remember I threatened to skin his pelt, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember why I was so angry. The blanket just made me sad now.

I had barely seen Jake since school started and it felt weird being without my constant companion. I hadn't really talked to him since that day he picked me up at school. That hadn't gone well at all. It made me sick to my stomach now, Jake had been absolutely right. I hated that. If I had just listened to him!

It was all so stupid.

At some point I must have fallen asleep, because the next time I looked at my alarm clock it was ten am. I sat up groggily, feeling like I had overslept. I hadn't slept in this late in such a long time, my sleeping patterns had been so off the wall the closer I got to whatever point it was that I would stop aging. I got out of bed and dragged myself to my closet. I pulled on soft grey sweatpants and an old t-shirt Jake had given me in an attempt to save it from one of Auntie Alice's closet cleaning flood. It didn't smell like him anymore, but it comforted me all the same.

I crawled back into my bed and pulled the covers over my head. The house seemed quiet, which meant everyone must have gone hunting for the day. If the house was empty, there was no point in me hiding in my room; I wanted to be alone, not locked in my room. There was a note on my desk confirming that everyone had gone hunting for the day and that I had the house to myself.

I was on the stairwell when I heard the back door open, the footsteps were heavy on the kitchen tile but the person was silent. It wasn't Emmett, which only left one person. Jake had walked into the kitchen. He was digging through the fridge and I was frozen to the sixth step. He walked into the living room with a pizza box, he gaze traveled up to me and I didn't know what to do.

He spoke first, "Do you know where this pizza is from?"

"Thursday. You're not suppose to eat in the living room."

"If you don't tell, I'll share."

There was nothing in my stomach from losing it last night and that pizza was one of the few things I could stand to eat. "Could I have the remote?" I hadn't wanted to be alone today, but maybe I could make up with Jake.

"Of course."

I flew down the stairs on my toes and sat on the other side of the couch, Jake sat the box of pizza in between us and opened it up. "It's still cold right?"

"Yeah, Emmett broke the microwave with the Furby. Esme said she would buy one when she went into town next week. I could try and warm it up for you, rub it or blow on it or something."

"It's not a puppy that needs saving, Jake." I picked up the remote and began flipping through channels.

He fiddled with the crust of the slice he had already finished, "You hated that movie when you were little," he was quiet and not looking at me.

"That woman scared me, she wanted to make those poor puppies into a coat. Besides, I made the connection between you and those puppies. It was just too much."

"You don't mind that blanket though." Jake hadn't taken too kindly to the furry blanket Rose had given me.

"It was just a joke, it's bear and it was Emmett's dinner or something. Mama even left the bite marks in when she started sewing it."

"I was just kidding, Nes." I settled on a channel and sat the remote down. "Are you serious, Nessie?"

"I like the early episodes!" I argued, defending the show I had chosen.

"But it's so unrealistic. No werewolf is that small and the full moon thing is bogus. And silver bullets, Nessie, please don't subject me to this."

"I like this episode, it makes me happy." That shut him up and he started on the last piece of pizza, I was still on my first.

He turned to me after a bite that devoured half the slice, "You didn't want this did you?"

"Of course not."

We watched the rerun in silence, Jake picked off the dribbles of cheese on the box and I ran my fingers over the many buttons on the remote. I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to say sorry. I _wanted_ to hear him tell me "I told you so."

After Jake fell asleep and after the episode finished, I picked up the pizza box and dumped it in the trash. I flipped the TV off and went to my room. Operation Make-Up With Jake had failed and wouldn't go anywhere if he were sleeping. Maybe we weren't meant to be friends, maybe I had completely screwed up. Maybe I was a wimp.

I crawled back into my blankets, they were cold and uncomfortable now. I pulled them out from their tucked in position at the foot of the bed and chucked them across the room. The clump of sheets hit my CD stand, which in turn tipped over my full-length mirror, which hit and broke a board on my bookshelf. CDs, shards of glass, books and trinkets all crashed to the floor.

"Shit!"

"Nessie!" Jacob's feet pounded up the staircase, he opened the door so suddenly that the new trim snapped on the top. "Nessie, are you okay?" I didn't answer. I knew he hadn't intended for his question to be so loaded, but it was.

"I'm fine, Jake," at least that's what I intended to say, all I really got out was the "I" and the rest was caught in my throat when it became clogged with tears. Tears poured out of my eyes, stinging my cheeks. I pulled my pillow over my head, I didn't want Jake to notice (ha!). I felt the mattress sag from his weight and his warm hand on my shoulder.

"Nessie," he shook me a little bit, "Loch Ness, you're scaring me. What's wrong? Is this- is this a girl thing?" He meant, 'is this my period', "Is there something I can do? Chocolate? Ice cream? I'll go hunting for you, name the animal and I'll find it. Nessie…"

"I want a chubucabra."

"Those are in Mexico, will you come with me? Keep me company?"

"Jake, I just want to be alone right now." I tried to pull out of his grasp but he simply picked me up from the armpits and pulled me onto this lap.

"Nessie," he was quiet, thinking, "Wait a minute," he was connecting something. This was where it would all go down hill, "didn't you—didn't you have that date last night? Does your mood have something—Nessie, what happened last night?"

"Nothing, Jake," I lied, "Yeah, I went out on a date then I came home. Nothing's wrong."

"I don't believe you, Nessie. Tell me or I'll go get your father."

"He can't read my mind if I'm blocking it, Jake. Just leave me alone." I tried pushing him away. I placed my hands on his chest and pushed away from him, I moved my legs off his lap but he just held onto me tighter. I didn't want to talk to Jake or about what happened last night. I didn't want to have to tell him or _anyone_ about what Zac had—I felt sick to my stomach when I thought about it.

"What did he do, Nessie? What did _Zac_," he said the name with so much venom I thought that he was going to wolf out right there, "do last night?"

"Nothing! Nothing happened! Why do you all think he is so evil?" This was so infuriating, couldn't we just leave it be.

"Because I could hear your thoughts, Nessie. You had your hands—I heard you. What don't you want to tell us? What don't you want to tell _me_? You can tell me anything," he said it so sincerely that I thought I could. But I couldn't, who cared if Jake had heard those few frantic thoughts about last night. He could wonder about what they meant till he died. Never mind that he wouldn't.

"It was nothing Jake."

"I call bull!" He was getting mad now, his grip was a little tighter on me and he jerked me, startling me and making me gasp.

"Jake can we please just drop it?"

"Nessie, you're hurting. I can feel it. I can't stand it and I want to fix it. You can tell me anything. I'm your best friend, right?"

"Of course, Jake. You're my best friend, you're like my brother."

He coughed on nothing, but recovered. "Then you can tell me anything."

"I can't not—not this."

"Something _did_ happen then!" I wouldn't think about it. Jake was still holding onto my arms and I seemed to have no control over my powers. Jake took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He pulled me onto his lap and ran his fingers through my hair, it always calmed me down when he did this. My curls would be frizzed out afterwards, but his fingers, just warmer than my own skin, could work magic on my nerves. Maybe it was an imprint thing.

My own personal Valium.

"Just tell me what happened, I'll fix it and we can put it behind us."

"I don't want to talk about it." I was getting tired, I leaned against his shoulder and pressed my face into his neck. I inhaled his soft scent, I couldn't define what it was exactly, but whatever it was, it was uniquely Jake. Whatever it was, it made me feel safe.

"You don't have to talk," he grabbed my hand and pressed it against his cheek, my thumb atop his cheekbone and my fingers splayed out towards his ear. It was something I had done so many times before, especially when I was little. As I grew up, I could just express my thoughts with a simple touch to the person's hand or wrist or anywhere really. Papa thought that perhaps it had something to do with my powers growing stronger with age. Like last night I had thrown my feelings out towards everyone. That was a dangerous thing I would need to learn to control.

Jacob was determined to learn what had happened to me the night prior, as the minutes went by it seemed like less and less of a big deal to me, but the truth was, I wasn't sure how Jake was going to respond. When I fell out of a tree two years ago and managed to break my arm, Jake attacked the tree. _The tree!_

But that was a tree, Jake wouldn't hurt a person. Besides, it wasn't that big of a deal. Nothing happened and I probably overreacted anyway! I took a deep breath and let it out. I showed Jake my entire night, trying to leave the house, the drive, the awkwardness, the names, the terrible food, the movie… when he tried to kiss me, when he did kiss me, when he tried to—

I came back when I felt pressure on my hand, Jake was pushing my hand against his cheek. He was trembling and shaking and seemed to be blurring in front of my eyes as if I was looking through a camera that was trying to focus.

"Jake, no. Jake, don't. Just, calm down. It's fine. Nothing happened!" I showed him my attack, running back to the house, finding it empty. "See, I'm fine. He's probably more hurt then I am. And I learned my lesson, you were right Jake. I shouldn't have even looked at _Zac_ twice," the name left a sour taste in my mouth, "I should have listened to you." I got up from the bed, out of his reach. "What the hell do I know about people?

"I've spent my entire life—all five years of it—surrounded by you guys, Aunt Rose and Auntie Alice, Uncle Jasper and Uncle Emmett, Mama, Papa, my mom and dad. These people know who I am, know what I can do, know my life, pretty much inside and out and I can be myself around them, Jacob! I can't do that at high school Jake. I don't know how to edit myself.

"Maybe I thought that going out with Zac would show me who I was supposed to be, maybe… maybe they lace the air vents with something. Talking to Zac should have been a major lapse in judgment, but I don't even have that ability to judge. You guys have been with me my entire life, I've only been somewhere by myself a handful of times. Someone has always been there for me to help me out. I don't know what to do without you guys," I looked up at him, unsure of what I read in his eyes, "I don't know what to do without _you_, Jake."

He reached over the empty space between the mattress and myself and pulled me into his chest, "I'm so sorry, Nessie. I've failed you. Forget that bastard, this is my fault. I should have been there. I should have enrolled with you—"

"What as one of the teachers?"

"—I should have been there with you. Guiding you, showing you what to do. Instead I just ran away, terrified and confused—"

"About what?" Jake wasn't that torn up about our disagreement from what felt like weeks ago.

He opened his mouth, but nothing but air came out, "W-will you stop interrupting me? I should have been there, none of this is your fault. I'll talk to your parents and to Esme and Carlisle, we'll figure out where to go from here. Maybe we'll start traveling again. You liked Spain didn't you?"

"Jake, I don't want to run away from this. I want to go back to school, I can't back out now. And I don't know if I want to tell everyone what happened, I'm amazed it didn't go through to her." Generally if things were a big enough deal, the haze that surrounded me and Jake would lift and let Alice see the event, it didn't happen often, but every once in awhile, it did. "See! Last night wasn't that big of a deal. Alice never would have let me go out if she saw what would happen."

"Nobody is perfect, it probably slipped."

"It's Alice. She's never faulty. She's not a computer, she doesn't need updates to continue running at peak performance," before I could argue further I yawned. This emotional breakdown thing was tough.

"Maybe you should take a nap, Nessie."

"I don't wanna!" I complained, just for old time's sake. He pressed me down on to the mattress and the remaining pillow. It was warm from him sitting here for so long. "Will you get my blankets?" I closed my eyes and snuggled into the pillow, knowing he would get them for me. He wrapped them around me and instead of tucking them under the mattress he tucked them under me, creating a cocoon. "Will you stay with me?"

"You're so needy!" He was joking. Well, he was joking about my neediness annoying him. I wasn't sure I could ever do anything that would annoy Jake. He rested next to me and wrapped his arm over me, the warm skin brushing against my chin.

"But you still love me though, right?"

"Forever and always, Nessie."

It seemed he would put up with endless heaps of crap from me. He was a really good friend. _Friend_. Friend wasn't the right word, not at all. I needed something more expressive of—of my what? What was Jake to me? He was my friend, yeah, sure, but he was also something so much more than that. Friend didn't cover half of what he was to me. He was my imprint, but I didn't really know what that entailed either. He was my protector, that much was sure. But I felt like Jake was something more than a big shiny shield, Jake was more than the guy on the white horse. Neither analogy worked for Jake, his large form would look awkward on a horse, and I was the shiny one in this relationship.

_Relationship_.

Was _that_ what Jake was to me? Was _that_ what it meant when I felt weird when Zac called me babe? Why wasn't there a class on this at school? An _Idiots Guide_, a KISS book, a _for Dummies_ handbook, something to clue me into what this all meant.

I loved Jake. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all knew that. But I was _loved _loved Jake. Like Mom and Dad, Alice and Jasper, Rose and Emmett, Papa and Mama, Kate and Jack—okay, maybe that wasn't such a good example. But… well, damn. Now I had this epiphany to deal with. I had all ready admitted so much to Jake tonight, I might as well keep the rock rolling down the hill. I had remained still in the chaos, so when I spoke, Jake jumped.

"Uhm, Jake?"

"Yeah, Nessie." He had been asleep. I didn't actually feel as guilty as I should have.

"I lied earlier… when I said that you were like my brother. You aren't Jake," I sat up and faced him, this was _not _the kind of conversation I should have facing my nightstand. "You're so much more and I only just realized it, except that I think I've felt this way for a long time it just progressed so naturally because I'm around you all the time and it was just how I acted but, like you said I don't know how people are supposed to act, all I see is my family and it's not like they are actually brothers and sisters, they're all married and in love with their best friend, yeah, sure Alice and Mom and Rose are all best friends, but that's not what I mean, best friends are the people you go to, to talk, to rejuvenate, that's a best friend," I took in a breath and noticed the confused and almost horrified look on his face, "You didn't get any of that did you?" I hadn't actually realized I had been talking so fast, but once I got going, I got going.

He shook his head.

"That's not important Jake. What's important is that I love you. I'm_ in_ love with you. However those silly prepositions change that phrase, that's what I am. I want to wake up with you every morning and even when I don't sleep anymore I want to stay with you all night and watch you sleep because it's the funniest thing to see you dreaming. You twitch and move like a dreaming dog and it's the funniest and sweetest thing I've ever seen. I want to go out to dinner with you and eat pizza and be amazed at how you can fit so much food in your stomach. I want to live vicariously through your when I can't enjoy food any more. I want to—"

Jake had stayed silent up to this point, which was probably safer for him cause this rock was rolling pretty fast. Everything that rolled down a hill though had to stop at some point though. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Nessie. Let's start slow, see what happens. We're both pretty new at this," my could hardly take it in, Jake felt this way too, "I love you Nessie, prepositions and all."

We were both sitting up now, facing each other, despite my shifting and my position the blankets were still wrapped up to my chin. Jake was always really amazing at tucking me in. "I don't know where to go from here, Jake. What if—what if everything changes now? What if this screws everything up?"

"What's going to change? Only little things."

Did his hands feel this good on my cheek before this?

"It only takes one card to make the tower fall, one Jenga block, one stick to make all the marbles fall. It doesn't take much."

Was he getting closer to me?

"We aren't a table game, Nessie. This isn't a game."

He was so getting closer to me.

His lips pressed on mine, sweet and chaste, soft and perfect. Perfect, perfect, _perfect_. Last night's kisses were not of this perfection, were not of this caliber, this sweetness. Last night was nothing and ultimately, forgettable. Jake pulled back, his lips pulled into a smile and he started talking. But I couldn't hear him, I could just see his lips moving. His lips.

_Give me my sin again_.

He must have read my mind because his lips were back on mine. Hot and plump, his fingers were wrapped in the curls around my neck, we had fallen back on to my pillow. I realized that my muscles did indeed still function—and they wanted to have fun. I felt down the seams of the his cotton shirt, the sensitive nerves could feel each bump in the material. I moved between the gap the shirt created for me as he leaned over me. His skin was so contradicting. His skin felt so soft, but it didn't take much to feel the muscle beneath the skin. I dragged my fingers up and smiled when I felt the goose bumps I created.

Jake groaned and pulled back, he looked at my clock. "We need to stop, Nessie. I don't want—"

"I'm fine. I'm not tired. I'm not hungry. I don't need to use the restroom, no part of my body is falling asleep. Can we please continue?" I pulled on the collar of his shirt, stretching it out, sure… but I just got to see more of his chest this way. I had never felt this way about this chest before; I had never cared.

"Everyone should be back soon, I don't want Edward walking in on—"

"My father?" Jake might not make me tell everyone about my date last night, but it certainly was going to be hard to hide_ this_ from them. "My father!"

After Jake was finished beating up the tree that I broke my arm on Daddy chopped it down and put it through a wood chipper, à la _Fargo_. If Jake reacted badly, Daddy would react ten times worse.

I placed the tips of my fingers on my nose, suddenly not very interested in pulling Jake back down on me, "One, two, three! Not it!"

The nose goes.

**AN: ***big sigh of relief* I have been working diligently on this for the past few days, it was just really hard to get out. A new job, a hard class, the time change… it was all pretty weird. One more chapter and that's gonna be it!!!

I realize this chapter it very long compared to my others, but I just couldn't see anywhere to split it without making the first half very boring. I'm sure no one will complain.

**PS. **Not edited. Sorry! of course, you guys are use to my lazy ass by now.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

_Chapter 15: _all good things must come to an end, but the best things go on forever.

**Jake POV**

Nessie's hand was pressed against her freckled nose. I frowned, "You don't want to tell your parents," her hand gently fell into her lap.

"Wait…"

Her train of thoughts had gone right to where I thought they would, "Are you ashamed of me?"

"Jake, no! Of course not! I was making a joke—a really bad one, apparently—but… ha ha, just kidding! I just—" her tense face dropped and she slouched, "you and I both know that Daddy is not going to react _pleasantly_ by any definition. There will be yelling involved, possibly some throwing of expensive electronics, threatening, hand clenching, the terror alert level might have to be raised. It's just not going to be pretty."

I kissed her turned-up nose and kept my face close to hers, "I'm just giving you a hard time, Nessie."

"You're a dirt bag," she shook her head, but behind her full lips was a smile waiting to either come out or be kissed out. I tucked a curl behind her ear, her hair had frizzed out a bit in the way that it used to when we ran through the trees in Forks. We hadn't done that in such a long time, perhaps a weekend trip was in order. 'Course with the current changes in our relationship there was no way in hell Eddie would ever let us be anywhere unchaperoned ever again.

Edward would want to change a lot of things that he had put up with before. Before this the late night movies snuggled together in a bed or on a couch had meant very little, it meant a lot more now.

"I might be a dirt bag, but I'm the dirt bag that you love, so what does that make you?"

Nessie thought, she cocked her head and bit her lip, that pretty smile trying to make it's way through again. Her eyes were putting fairy dust to shame with all the sparkle and shine going on in the mischief in them.

"Charitable."

She was going to keep me on my toes. And I was going to love every moment of it.

*****

Nessie picked out a movie for us to watch on TV. It was some dramatic romance that I couldn't get into because of the cool body in my arms. When the screen faded to black the front door slammed shut.

"So, out of the fire and into the frying pan?" I looked down at her, she hadn't really moved from her position even though the credits were rolling and her family had returned.

"Let's be raw vegetarians," she suggested. The thought made me gag. Ness and I were carnivores if I ever knew one. I pulled her up off the bed and over to the doorway.

"What are you so afraid of, Nessie?"

"Their reactions. I don't know. I guess it is kind of silly. What are they gonna do—kick me out?" She was joking, but suddenly her face dropped as if she was seriously thinking that anyone in the house would even want to kick her out. Me, maybe, but never Nessie. This entire family would revolve around Nessie if they didn't know she would resent it.

Her hand reached out to the doorknob, it looked like she had lost more pigment in her skin since the last time I had really paid attention. She twisted the door and opened it in to the room.

Her entire family stood outside the door.

**Nessie POV**

"Whoa! Creepy vampire stereotype much?"

Alice was being held down by Jasper, she would have been bouncing off the walls like rubber ball in a closed box if he didn't have his hands on her shoulders. Emmett and Rose were both standing coolly in the background, Rose looked a little disgruntled by I knew she really was happy for me. Mama and Papa were also standing with Rose and Emmett, looking happy and but remaining calm. Then there was my mom and dad. Mom had a smile on her face; that was a relief. Dad on the other hand was seething and grinding his teeth.

I was beginning to wonder if vampire teeth could be worn down and if so, would they grow back or something…

Mama noticed Daddy's anger just as Jasper did. "Perhaps we should leave them alone you guys?" She carefully maneuvered everyone but Mom and Dad away from the door and back outside.

"Hey," I said, trying to break the silence with anything. "Hunt anything good?"

"Jacob, I'd like to talk to you. Privately, please." My father's voice was grim. Jake squeezed my hand, kissed my forehead—which made me blush as hard as I could now with the change so close—and left with my dad.

I hoped this wasn't the last time I saw him.

"So?" My mother asked in the kind way that she must have gotten from Mama.

"So…a needle pulling thread…"

"You and Jake made up?" It was a both a statement and a question. The question was really about whether Jake and I were in a relationship.

"Yes. We made up. I'm glad. I'm happy, for the first time in what feels like forever."

"And your date?" Oh yeah. _That_. That was a lot harder to explain. I think I'd rather take a time machine back five minutes ago and open that door a million more times than have to explain that date again.

"It was really bad." Would it be dishonest of me to not tell her? Was it important that I did? Sure, Zac tried something, but he didn't do anything. I looked away from Mom. The way her eyes were shaped just like mine and the similar shape of her lips… somehow, it could make me reveal anything to her. "He tried to…" I grimaced. "He tried—"

"He tried to have sex with you?" She looked shocked and disgusted. Was she upset with me? I thought so and went back into my room, shutting the door. Why couldn't she just be like Jake? Just forget about it. The wooden door not being much of a deterrent for an angry mom who happened to be a vampire, she opened the door and walked into the room and sat down next to me.

"What happened?" she placed her cold hand on mine, trying to be all motherly.

"I don't want to tell you! You're just going to get angry at me!"

"Honey! I'm not going to be mad at you! It's not your fault. I'm angry at that dumb boy. I'm mad that I couldn't protect you. I'm not mad at you. I couldn't be. I wasn't mad at you when you tried to make Barbie dresses out of my wedding dress—"

"Auntie Alice was."

"Okay, bad example," she smiled and leaned back on to my bed. "Nessie, you're my daughter. I love you, no matter what you do or will do. No matter what happened or what happens to you. It's unconditional."

"You're gonna make me cry, Momma." I hadn't called her Momma in such a long time.

"Cry while you can, sweetie. You'll miss it some day."

I leaned down next to her and she wrapped her arms around me. We stayed there for quite some time, just enjoying the silence. I wasn't sure if she could hear Jake and Daddy talking, I knew her hearing was much better than mine though. I asked her and she denied being able to hear them, though I didn't know if she was telling the truth or not.

It felt like forever before Jake came back into my room, Mom left to leave us alone. "I'm gonna go running tonight."

"Let me go with you. I want to run next to you!" I got up to put on a new pair of running shoes, there were a few dozen pairs as I went through them so quickly. Everyone in my family did.

"Actually, Nessie, you should go talk with your dad. I'll be back when you're done."

I frowned, but complied. I stretched as I got off the bed and Jake watched. I couldn't help but smile. I was going to like this new thing between me and Jake. Before leaving Jake kissed me very quickly and jumped off the balcony window, shredding his clothes as he changed in mid-air. Alice complained about him constantly ruining clothes, but I think she secretly like it though since it meant she was able to shop more frequently.

I walked over to the library Mom and Dad shared. It was a musty room, not just because the house was old as dirt but because of all the books. There was no ventilation system that could really compensate for the heavy load of old books those two kept on hand. It was simpler than the other libraries only because Mom and Dad had said it would be fine for Esme to focus on other projects in the house, good ventilation and shelving were really the only things important when it came to housing books.

Dad was the only one in the room, he was sitting in a huge leather chair in front of a carefully lit fire. The fence was high on it, protecting him from any flame or ember that would try to pop out from the hearth.

"Hey Daddy," I pulled the ottoman up next to him and sat down.

"Hey Nessie," he was still staring in to the dangerous flames.

I sat there, waiting for him to be the first to speak. To say something, anything. I would have been happy with him telling me that Jacob was a terrible person for me and that he was incredibly disappointed in me for being in love with him. I just wanted to him to talk. I wanted to know what he was thinking.

"Daddy, do you hate Jake?" I asked once I was fed up with the silence.

"No," was all he replied with. So not helping.

"Then why are you so angry? Did he run over you dog?" I stumbled over the last sentence once I realized what I was saying. "Seriously, Dad. Why do you have such a grudge against him."

He looked at me for the first since I entered the room. "I don't hate him. And he didn't run over my dog," he gave this exasperated look that was only reserved for me. "He's taking my daughter away from me. I don't get to be your protector anymore and that's hard for me. Sometimes I feel like I got gypped with you growing up so fast."

I held his hand and lifted up my shield. I still spoke out loud but this way he knew I wasn't bullshitting him. "You'll always be my daddy. No one can take me away from you. I'm sorry, but you're stuck with me. And I haven't needed protecting in a very long time," despite last night this was all very true, "I think I can really take care of myself now. Of course, the first time Jake does something stupid you can totally kick his ass."

"Don't swear, Renesemee."

I rolled my eyes and he finally smiled. _I really still am your little girl. I'll _always_ be your little girl. Even when I'm seven hundred years old. I'll still be the little girl you built a model town for and played tea party with. Jake isn't going to change any of that._

"I love you, Nessie."

"I love you too, Daddy."

Ignoring how ridiculous it looked, I climbed into his lap and we sat and watched the fire until it died, just like how we used to when I was little.

Things would be different from now on, that much I knew, but not everything had to change. Some changes were for the better… and anything bad? Well, that had to lead to something good. I just wasn't seeing it yet.

**AN: **I'm a terrible person, blah blah blah. Work and school took up a lot of time. When classes cause a 19-year-old to curl up and cry, writing has to take a second priority. As a consolation prize for a (oh, geeze) three-month gap in chapters I have two Nessie ficlets in the works right now. One with a baby Ness and one with the whole family. I hope to have those finished soon. I'm just happy to have this one done.

I had fun writing this. I liked getting to write in a smart-ass narrative for a change. I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did!

Much love,

Samantha


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